The luck of the draw: A deeper look at lotteries

Earlier this month, somebody in Florida won a $1.58 billion lottery jackpot. It was the largest Mega Millions jackpot to date, although four other Mega Millions prizes over $1 billion have been won in the past five years. This hour, we’re talking about lotteries. How did this massive money redistribution game come to be? And we know that lotteries can randomly allocate cash prizes to ticket buyers – but could they also pick our political officials? Or the victims of our human sacrifice rituals to ensure that “corn be heavy soon”? GUESTS: Jonathan D. Cohen: Historian and author of “For a Dollar and a Dream: State Lotteries in Modern America” Alex Guerrero: Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University and author of the forthcoming book, “Lottocracy: The Case for Democracy without Elections” Ruth Franklin: Book critic and biography of Shirley Jackson Join the conversation onFacebook and Twitter.Support the show: http://www.wnpr.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.