For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America
by Jonathan D. Cohen
View on GoodreadsA historian's account of how state-run lotteries went from constitutionally banned vice to ubiquitous fixture of state finance over the second half of the 20th century — and what was traded for that revenue.
Core ideas
- State lotteries are functionally regressive consumption taxes on the people least able to absorb them — the marketing of "dreams" is the cover for the math.
- The political alternative — raising broad-based taxes — was foreclosed by anti-tax politics from the 1970s on; lotteries were the workaround.
- Once the state becomes the bookie, the incentive structure flips from regulating gambling to maximizing it — leading directly to where Cohen picks up in his later sports-betting book.
Published2022
Pages288
ISBN9780197604885
ReadDec 2022
