Temples of Chance

``Gambling is inevitable,'' declared the Commission on the Review of the National Policy Toward Gambling in the mid-1970s. Less than 20 years later, Johnston, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer, finds that commercial gambling backed by such business moguls as Donald Trump, Merv Griffin and Steve Wynn and by such corporations as Holiday Inn, Ramada and Hilton has made profits the Mafia never even dreamed of when it controlled Las Vegas. Johnston's hard-edged, sobering account traces the questionable megabuck financial deals that support gambling's increasing popularity in America and indicts corporate and government organizations for encouraging minors to drink and gamble and for coddling high-rollers and money-mongers. An eye-opening expose. (Oct.)