The Lottery Wars

Long Odds, Fast Money, and the Battle Over an American Institution

By Matthew Sweeney

Lawsuits, lost jackpots, and the lottery: the story behind America's strange relationship to the addictive game it has come to depend on.

Despite the infinitesimal odds, more than half of Americans admit to occasionally playing the lottery. We wait on long lines and give up our coffee breaks. We scratch tickets, win, and spend the winnings on more scratch tickets. We play our "lucky" numbers, week in and week out.

In a country where gambling is ostensibly illegal, this is a strange state of affairs. In colonial Jamestown, the first lottery was created despite conservative opposition to the vice of gambling. Now, 42 states sponsor lotteries despite complaints of liberals who see them as a regressive tax on the poor. Why do we all play this game that brings no rewards, and leaves us rifling through the garbage for the ticket we swear would be a winner if we could only find it? How has this game persisted, even flourished, in defiance of so much opposition?

In this observant, intelligent book, Matthew Sweeney gives a history of the American lottery, stopping along the way to give us the bizarre--sometimes tragic--stories that it makes possible: the five-million-dollar miracle man who became a penniless preacher investing in a crackpot energy scheme; the senator whose untimely injury allowed the lottery to pass into law in his home state; and many others.

Written with insight and wit, Dreaming in Numbers gives us the people and the stories that built a nationwide institution, for better or worse.

Reviews for The Lottery Wars

“So are state-run lotteries a good thing or not? Mr. Sweeney does not venture an opinion. He concentrates instead on facts, providing a richly informed account. Each of us will have to judge for ourselves whether it makes sense for government to offer its citizens such a gamble.”—The Wall Street Journal Read full review.

Great Q&A with Matt on Time’s “Cheapskate Blog”

“Matthew Sweeney takes an incisive and sweeping look into America's long fascination with the lottery. Although the book is a fairly short read, it is also a pleasure: a non-polemical, fact-filled encounter with a kaleidoscopic view of the lottery.”—San Francisco Chronicle Read full review.

Columbia Journalism Review

Metro interview

“Sweeney compellingly maps the seedy history of this American pastime.”—Mother Jones Read full review.

“This book is a welcome investigation of this often mysterious engine of commerce and dreams.”—Phoebe Connelley, B&N.com Read full review.