Support for Scratch and Win comes from MIT Federal Credit Union, helping members navigate their

earning options with high-yield savings accounts. Membership information at MITFCU.org, federally insured

by NCUA. As I was sifting through the database of the GbH archives, looking for material for the series,

there was one item that caught my eye right away, because it was about the city where I live.

A small city of about 65,000 people just outside of Boston, called Medford.

At the Sunnyhurst Farms Market in West Medford today,

customers were lining up for a dance with Ladyluck.

It turns out that decades ago,

a young reporter with very large glasses named John Hashimoto

had toured the local convenience stores,

talking to lottery players and clerks,

trying to understand a puzzle about

the city's finances.

Then, as now, the city was strapped for cash. Cuts to services were looming, but no one in town

wanted to talk about raising taxes. The mayor was refusing to even put a tax hike referendum before the voters.

And yet,

I come in here every single day and get my scratches.

Somebody's got to keep the government going.

For all the agonizing over taxes,

people here had plenty of money when it came to playing numbers and scratch tickets.

What better proof than the latest lottery sales figures which show this small blue-collar town

selling more than $17.5 million worth of tickets last year?

...