Jonathan D. Cohen on America’s Lottery Obsession

CUNY TV's Bob Herbert's Op-Ed.TV

Americans spend more money on lottery tickets every year than they spend on streaming services, concert tickets, books and movie tickets combined. But what’s the truth about lotteries? Are the odds of winning a Powerball or Mega-Millions jackpot so big that you have basically no chance at all? Do the lotteries raise the huge sums for education or other public services that they claim? Bob puts these questions and more to his guest, the historian Jonathan D. Cohen, who has written a timely and compelling new book, “For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America.”