With its huge jackpots and heartwarming rags-to-riches stories, the lottery has become the hope and dream of millions of Americans--and the fastest-growing source of state revenue. Despite its popularity, however, there remains much controversy over whether this is an appropriate business for state government and, if so, how this business should be conducted.
Every day in the United States, people test their luck in numerous lotteries, from state-run games to massive programs like Powerball and Mega Millions. Yet few are aware that the origins of today’s lotteries can be found in an African American gambling economy that flourished in urban communities in the mid-twentieth century. In Running the Numbers, Matthew Vaz reveals how the politics of gambling became enmeshed in disputes over racial justice and police legitimacy. As Vaz highlights, early urban gamblers favored low-stakes games built around combinations of winning numbers. When these games became one of the largest economic engines in nonwhite areas like Harlem and Chicago’s south side, police took notice of the illegal business—and took advantage of new opportunities to benefit from graft and other corrupt practices. Eventually, governments found an unusual solution to the problems of illicit gambling and abusive police tactics: coopting the market through legal state-run lotteries, which could offer larger jackpots than any underground game. By tracing this process and the tensions and conflicts that propelled it, Vaz brilliantly calls attention to the fact that, much like education and housing in twentieth-century America, the gambling economy has also been a form of disputed terrain upon which racial power has been expressed, resisted, and reworked.
Lotteries and state-sponsored gambling is big business. This is the first study that evaluates the business strategies of state lotteries on two fronts. First, it examines which of the lottery strategies produces the most consistent source of revenue for the state. Second, it analyzes possible overall gambling strategies that states will need to utilize as they seek to expand gambling revenue. This is must reading for those operating lotteries, state legislators, vendors to state lottery commissions, taxpayers, and scholars in public policy and government. The whole question of state-sponsored gambling is explored, integrating both the business and policy strategies of operating a state lottery. Initially, gambling and lotteries were introduced into the public policy process in times of social unrest, brought on by the outbreak of war. Since regular sources of governmental revenue were diverted to the war effort, proceeds from gambling activites were used to finance the building of roads, canals, and schools. An Ethics of Tolerance also had to evolve in order to engender the public's acceptance of lotteries and gambling. Today, states are using gambling revenues to support education, public transportation, and aid to local towns and cities. Hence, gambling revenues must be maintained or increased. States now must decide whether they should introduce other gambling initiatives, possibly cannibalizing their existing activities in the process. The basic question, of whether it is actually possible for a state to establish an overall gambling strategy, is explored by an analysis of the gambling policies of Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. The future of gambling in the United States, as states move beyond lotteries to sanctioning casino gambling by private entrepreneurs, concludes this most relevant and provocative book.
Discussions in this book include taking gambling losses and expenses off your taxes, how to avoid paying gambling debts, what to do if you feel you are cheated, whether a home poker game is legal, what to do if you are arrested, your rights in a casino,can counting cards be legal, how to keep from being blacklisted by casinos, getting a gambling license, reducing taxes if you win big in the lottery and more.
As states have moved from merely tolerating gambling to running their own games, as communities have increasingly turned to gambling for an economic boost, important questions arise. Has the new age of gambling increased the proportion of pathological or problem gamblers in the U.S. population? Where is the threshold between "social betting" and pathology? Is there a real threat to our families, communities, and the larger society? Pathological Gambling explores America's experience of gambling, examining: The diverse and frequently controversial issues surrounding the definition of pathological gambling. Its co-occurrence with disorders such as alcoholism, drug abuse, and depression. Its social characteristics and economic consequences, both good and bad, for communities. The role of video gaming, Internet gambling, and other technologies in the development of gambling problems. Treatment approaches and their effectiveness, from Gambler's Anonymous to cognitive therapy to pharmacology. This book provides the most up-to-date information available on the prevalence of pathological and problem gambling in the United States, including a look at populations that may have a particular vulnerability to gambling: women, adolescents, and minority populations. Its describes the effects of problem gambling on families, friendships, employment, finances, and propensity to crime. How do pathological gamblers perceive and misperceive randomness and chance? What are the causal pathways to pathological gambling? What do genetics, brain imaging, and other studies tell us about the biology of gambling? Is there a bit of sensation-seeking in all of us? Who needs treatment? What do we know about the effectiveness of different policies for dealing with pathological gambling? The book reviews the available facts and frames the intriguing questions yet to be answered. Pathological Gambling will be the odds-on favorite for anyone interested in gambling in America: policymakers, public officials, economics and social researchers, treatment professionals, and concerned gamblers and their families.
The Tenth Edition brings together the high-quality research expected from this trusted text, with comprehensive and comparative analysis of the fifty U.S. states.
Forty-eight states now permit legalized gambling in some form, thirty-seven states run lotteries, forty-seven allow bingo houses, and more than a dozen states permit betting on dog races. American gamblers wager over $300 billion yearly in legal gambling. Although many Americans enjoy gambling and see it as harmless recreation and a fairly painless way to generate revenue without levying direct taxes, many social conservatives see gambling as a socially destructive temptation that ought notto be indulged by private citizens, much less sponsored by government. Recently, economic pressures resulting from less federal revenue and Americans' growing aversion to tax increases have led many state governments to liberalize gambling laws or sponsor gambling, sparking a lively debate. Legalized Gambling contains twenty articles focusing on different aspects of gambling policy by experts in the fields of public policy, law, psychiatry, rhetoric, religion, economics, and politics. The contributors address all areas of the debate, including the following: -- What moral issues are at the center of the debate? -- What are the true economic costs and benefits of legalized gambling? How are they often hidden or misconstrued in order to support either prohibition or legalization? -- How has the history of gambling in America shaped our current policies? -- Is governmental regulation an invasion of personal privacy? -- What are the legitimate uses of laws? -- Is "pathological gambling" a justifiable medical diagnosis? -- Do gambling establishments run by Native Americans deserve special consideration or regulation? "(In a lottery) ... the tax is laid on the willing only, that is to say, on those who can risk the price of a ticket without sensible injury for the possibility of a higher prize". -- Thomas Jefferson
