I giochi (d'azzardo) e gli spot : la pubblicizzazione televisiva del gambling in Italia

The following article results from a research focused on the television advertising of gambling in Italy. Gambling is considered a cultural object as well as a media one, and the symbolic efficacy is analyzed through Schudson's dimensions, which allows to «measure» the force of a given cultural product. As a result of gambling addiction becoming a social problem, institutionalized by recent political interventions, some of the commercials analyzed show the development of a narration where the promise of happiness (presented as excitement linked to the game as a performance and a potential win) seems to flourish paradoxically through the very risk of unhappiness related to gambling [Publisher's Text].