Did James Bond actually enjoy gambling, or was he doing it purely for the pursuit of an espionage goal?

Both. He was put in a position to have to gamble because he gambled well.

You can still find the original Ian Fleming books on ebay etc. My dad loved the Ian Fleming James Bond books, and he left them behind when he died.

I read them all.

The movies (except for a couple of early Sean Connery, and the recent Casino Royale) are generally silly compared to the books.

In every Fleming book, Bond took on the villian in a game (Goldfinger-golf, Hugo Drax-bridge etc.), discovered that they were cheaters and beat them at their own game. He was selected for these assignments simply because he was an accomplished gambler, golfer etc. There were other 00 agents as well, but gambling was one of Bond’s skills.

M, his puritanical boss, did not approve of Bond’s vices, but found the skills advantageous on occasion, and sort of grudgingly let him loose. The point that the books made better than the movies was that Bond was not some sort of well dressed dandy. The 00 meant he was designated as an assassin, and he was cold blooded in that pursuit. His gambling and womanizing skills made him a more interesting character than if he had simply been a soul-less killer, which he also was.

@josie nailed it. GA

Part of the smooth, cool, glamorous, cosmopolitan image, I guess!

I always thought Bond was a narcissistic sociopath working on the side of good, like Dexter, only in a tux with more cool spy toys and a little less gory in his exploits. lol

He hated it, because he was crap!

He needed the money to pay his student loans from spy school.