Selling Hope: State Lotteries in America.

Selling Hope: State Lotteries in America, by Charles T. Clotfelter and Philip J. Cook, is available from Harvard University Press for $29.50.

Selling Hope, the final report on an NBER study conducted by Clotfelter and Cook, comprehensively describes lottery games and prize structures, who plays, why they play, and how they play. It shows how low-income people are disproportionately represented among lottery customers and how a small fraction of all players account for a major share of lottery revenues.

In addition to questioning who bears the burden of lottery finance, Clotfelter and Cook ask whether lotteries have been truthful in...