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This chapter examines how and why Asian bookmakers have surpassed the rest of the sports gambling market in betting volume. It critically unpacks the size, structure and operations of this market, before examining the globalisation of match-fixing that accompanies this, largely, unregulated market. While there has been some excellent research on the structure of the Black/Red Mafia controlled gambling in Communist China or match-fixing in national markets like South Korea and Taiwan, this chapter is one of the first comprehensive examinations of the globalised Asian gambling market and its contribution to sports corruption.

Purpose – Good investigative sociology and high-quality investigative journalism are not just the same but they are close relatives. For both professions, getting under the surface soil of social life, digging deeply into and making coherent sense of the social experience of others, and translating those findings and interpretations into a universal language for widespread consumption are hugely challenging tasks. Understanding the difference and similarities regarding how sociologists and investigative journalists go about this task raises fundamental philosophical, epistemological, ethical, methodological, theoretical and practical concerns, the outline considerations of which are all featured in this chapter.

Design/methodology/approach – Drawing upon more than three decades of investigative research experience in the field and the original and the innovative personal scholarship that this has yielded, the chapter offers students a map reader's guide of how to navigate a way through the complex, challenging and sometimes hazardous labyrinth of investigative qualitative research.

Originality/value – In addition to offering a ‘how to’ primer for thinking about and doing investigative-qualitative sociology, the chapter also offers advice on how to survive the experience and authoritatively tell the tale well to the widest possible audiences.

Written partially in response to a previous paper published in this Journal suggesting that leadership and leaders are categorised as ‘transformational’ or ‘transactional’, the author suggests that these definitions are too narrow to be reflective of reality. It is instead argued that true and effective leaders operate in a multidimensional framework that combines styles, skills, attributes and abilities that fall within what we commonly refer to as management and leadership. It is suggested that there is a need to move on and to accept that there is not an all‐encompassing model, definition or style of leadership.

The purpose of this paper is to better understand the dramatic transformation of Las Vegas from a local watering hole to a world renowned entertainment city, and to offer predictions of what this ever-changing city might become in the future.

A series of turning points in Las Vegas’ history are presented in a chronological manner, highlighting how external forces have played a role in shaping the city into what it is today. These external forces are then used as the underlying reasoning for a series of scenarios, signposts informing predictions detailing what might happen to Las Vegas in the future.

The development of Las Vegas has been influenced by a wide range of external factors, from geology, government, organized crime, business visionaries, large corporations and the economy. The continued influence of these factors could lead to drastically divergent outcomes from the loss of the city to a new golden age.

This paper identifies turning points that have helped to shape the development of Las Vegas, and in doing so encourages researchers to consider future scenarios grounded in the underlying dynamics of the turning points.