Has the Lottery Played Us? with Jonathan Cohen

Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast

NBCNews

News, Nbcnews, Why Is This Happening?, The Chris Hayes Podcast, Chris Hayes, Politics, Government, Society & Culture, Msnbc, Withpod

4.6 • 8.9K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2023

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The history of lotteries spans over four millennia. The modern version of them arose out of a need for a form of more state funding that wouldn’t raise taxes. Jackpots have reached record levels in the past few years. And "Americans now spend more on lottery tickets every year than on cigarettes, coffee or smartphones," writes historian and author Jonathan Cohen. Cohen is author of “For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America,” a comprehensive history of America’s lottery obsession. In the book, he points out that lotteries are much less profitable for states than some proponents say, but on the other hand, they are extremely lucrative for private companies that manufacture tickets. Cohen joins WITHpod to discuss the evolution of lotteries, changes he thinks should be made to the way they are run, public misconceptions about the revenue generated by games and why he says state run lotteries shouldn’t exist.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Should we abolish the lottery?
0:01.6	I think it's time.
0:03.4	I don't think it's going to happen.
0:04.6	You think we should get rid of say,
0:05.6	lottery?
0:06.1	I think we do.
0:07.1	I think we should.
0:08.1	The gambling will continue.
0:09.1	I make no jokes about that.
0:11.6	People are going to keep betting, but there is no way without the cooperation of a state
0:15.9	government or these companies that Americans are going to have at $98 billion a year on
0:21.1	lottery tickets.
0:22.2	And the 5% 1% of players are still going to find a way to play.
0:26.2	But ultimately, these games are not serving the common good.
0:29.8	And in fact, I think are doing more harm than good overall.
0:36.8	Hello and welcome to Wise is happening with me, your host Chris Hayes.
0:46.5	There's a new Republican Congress you may have heard about.
0:48.8	And after a lot of back and forth, Kevin McCarthy is now leading the House for Republican
0:53.5	Caucus.
0:54.5	The first thing they did was vote on a rules package, which is a little obscure, but
0:58.5	actually ends up pretty important because it's the kind of guiding governing language for
1:03.4	how the House is going to proceed.
	...

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