Is it possible to make economics interesting, even exciting?

Perhaps undeservedly, economics has developed a reputation for not being the most scintillating of subjects with enrolments seemingly on the decline in favour of the more business oriented subjects such as marketing, operations management, organisational behaviour, financial management and the like. A particular challenge is to capture the audience of large first year students who are mostly there under sufferance since it is a compulsory part of a general business or management degree. Economics departments seem to be constantly fighting a battle to convince a significant number to continue their studies in this area. This paper outlines one such approach where the concept of economic risk is graphically illustrated by introducing a subject that illustrates the concepts using the techniques of gambling. For those who might contemplate using a similar approach, the progress of this course from its conception to the completed product is provided.