Selling Hope

Although Selling Hope is a serious work of economic research, the authors bring a lively curiosity and an engaging style of writing to their work I found Selling Hope to be enlightening, even entertaining at times, and full of good reason for outrage over the lottery. -- Jonathan Kirsch * Los Angeles Times * This book had me grinding my teeth, muttering under my breath, underlining like crazy, and littering the margins with exclamation points Lottery agencies are looking for ever more attractive forms of gamblinglike tapping into professional sports. Its not too late to head off such questionable activity Selling Hope should be required reading for anybody in a position to decide such issues. -- Brad Knickerbocker * Christian Science Monitor * Immensely valuable Scholars and public policy officials and analysts should quickly obtain this book. Even religious leaders should read it. Undoubtedly this landmark work will define the debate in the 1990s over establishing and maintaining lotteries in the United States. -- David E. R. Gay * Social Science Quarterly * Whatever the criteria, this is a superb bookit has earned the right to be the basis from which public policy debates on the controversial issues can and should take place. -- A. R. Sanderson * Choice *

Charles T. Clotfelter is Z. Smith Reynolds Professor of Public Policy Studies at Duke University. Philip J. Cook is ITT/Terry Sanford Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Economics and Sociology at Duke University.

Preface to the 1991 Edition PART I: The Setting A New Role for the States Magnitudes The Fall and Rise of Lotteries PART II: The Games and the Players The Games People Play Why (and How) They Play The Demand for Lottery Products Winners and Losers PART III: The Government's Business State Politics and the Lottery Bandwagon The Suppliers The Sales Pitch PART IV: Lotteries as Public Policy A "Painless Tax"? Choices Appendix: Supplementary Tables Notes References Index