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4d

Massachusetts State Treasurer Deborah Goldberg requests a "$13.6 million boost in the lottery’s budget" - per increased expenses - even though the lottery recorded "$1 billion in profits ... mostly from the pockets of the least well-off MA residents"
#mapoli #money #lottery

https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2025/03/13/editorial-mass-lottery-doesn-t-need-more-money.html

Edited 4d ago

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18d

A big shout-out to @gbhnews for another incredible podcast series! I'm midway through "Scratch & Win", which documents the meteoric rise of the Massachusetts State Lottery, and it's pure nerd catnip: organized crime, gambling, power, machine politics, combinatorics, computer science history! I can't believe the interviews they managed to get (and that the closing song is sung by the former state treasurer). All props to the production and editing team. Ian, Isabel, Lacy, and everyone involved should be really proud. Waiting for the inevitable HBO miniseries!

https://www.wgbh.org/podcasts/scratch-win

Quote from episode 1 transcript:

The Massachusetts Lottery had already rejected nearly twenty prototypes by the time they settled on a final design -- the one with the paper flaps. Only to have John Koza, this recently graduated wiz kid with a dimpled chin and a combover, show up and tell them it was flawed. So on the spot they made a deal. Koza could take home 50 tickets and do his best to prove they could be hacked.

#MApoli #Massachusetts #History #Lottery #Gambling #math #podcast #PublicRadio #GBH #PRX