Jon Cohen, a doctoral student from the University of Virginia, is among the 2015-16 class of Eadington Fellows at the UNLV Center for Gaming Research. The residency program enables researchers from around the world to dig into the unique archives in UNLV Libraries Special Collections. Here, Cohen shares some of the work he did examining the rise of state lotteries in the social, political, cultural, economic, and religious climate of the late 20th century. He’ll present the free lecture “This Could Be Your Ticket Out: Social Mobility in the Age of Jackpot Capitalism” at 3 p.m. Dec. 3, Goldfield Room, Lied Library.
In 2014, Americans spent over $70 billion on lottery tickets, more than they spent on sports tickets, video games, books, movie tickets, and music combined. According to the Pew Research Center, 25 percent of Americans buy a lottery ticket at least once a week and more than half have bought one in their lifetime.
When legal lotteries were introduced as means of raising state revenue in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, critics claimed that the lure of instant jackpots would undermine the American value system of hard work. The United States — many of these critics claimed — was founded upon a merit system grounded in hard work, not sheer luck and randomness. They feared that lotteries would tear down and destroy the fundamental values that they envisioned at the heart of the American Dream.
My project shows that lotteries have not undermined the American Dream, but have transformed how many people believe it works. Since the 1970s, economic inequality has surged while rates of social mobility — the chance someone has to earn a higher income than their parents — have remained relatively low compared to the middle of the 20th century. In the wake of factory closures and a restructuring economy, popular faith in the traditional system of merit has declined. According to one poll, the number of Americans who agreed with the statement “hard work always pays off” fell from 58 percent in 1968 to 44 percent in 1978 to just 36 percent in 1984.
Faith in winning a lottery jackpot has come to fill the void left by a declining faith in hard work. Rather than give up all hope for achieving a better life, many Americans have relocated their hope for reaching these dreams to games of infinitesimal chance. In a 2010 poll, for example, almost as many Americans stated that the most likely way for them to get rich was through winning the lottery (15 percent) as starting their own business (20 percent) or a high-paying job (19 percent). Much of this can be explained by lottery advertisements, such as these New York State Lottery commercials, which celebrated lotteries as easy and reliable ways to win money and to avoid having to work. While many players purchase lottery tickets for entertainment, a 1986 Los Angeles Times poll found that lottery players with lower income were more likely to say they played for money rather than for fun. Lotteries therefore provide a look at how many low-income people experience inequality and how they have responded to a changing economy.
At UNLV Special Collections, I am researching a variety of sources that highlight the voices of lottery players from the past fifty years. I am paying special attention to publications geared toward lottery players, especially Lottery Players’ Magazine, which had a circulation of over 200,000 in the 1980s. Through the “Letters to the Editor” section, in particular, I am examining what lottery players were thinking about, what games they were playing, and how they were playing them.
I am also looking at a variety of books aimed at lottery players that remain popular today. Emblazoned with titles such as How to Pick Your Personal Lottery Numbers and How to Win Lotteries, these books highlight the quasi-religious practices involved in lottery playing — from the use of lucky numbers, to players asking previous winners to touch their lottery tickets. These practices demonstrate the mindset of many lottery players and provide crucial insight into how meritocracy works in an increasingly unequal and socially immobile society.
