Scratch & Win
GBH News
Never in American history has it been so easy to gamble, legally at least. We’ve got casinos, sports betting, online poker, keno — but it was all made possible by state lotteries, which brought gambling out of the shadows and into the public square — into the government itself. “Scratch & Win” follows the unlikely rise of America’s most successful lottery. We begin in 1970s Boston, with state bureaucrats going toe to toe with mafia bookmakers, and each other, as they struggle to launch the state's greatest innovation: the scratch ticket. But the story reaches all the way to the present moment. How d...
Why do some parts of government work better than others?
This podcast has featured two stories about government endeavors: the much-criticized infrastructure project known as ‘The Big Dig,’ and of course the wildly successful state lottery. So why do these two stories play out so differently?In the final interview episode for this season, host Ian Coss speaks with Marc Dunkelman, a research fellow at Brown University, about why some parts of government draw intense scrutiny while others run quietly in the background. Dunkelman’s new book is "Why Nothi
Apr 2, • 43:55
Should we be nostalgic for machine politics?
There’s a lot of talk lately about patronage politics returning to Washington – a system based on loyalty, relationships, favors and transactions – but this kind of system is not new. Patronage was once the beating heart of the Democratic Party, and of course, the Massachusetts state lottery. So what changed? How did the party of patronage become the party of technocrats?In this second interview episode, host Ian Coss speaks with historian Lily Geismer, co-editor of a new book about the
Mar 26, • 39:10
Why does sports betting feel different?
Lotteries are part of a long trend toward more and more legal gambling: bingo helped open the door for lotteries, just as lotteries helped open the door for casinos. And by that logic, sports betting is just the latest addition to the trend. So why does it feel so different?In the first of three interview episodes expanding on themes from the series, host Ian Coss speaks with gambling historian Jonathan Cohen about why this expansion of legal gambling is unlike anything that came before it.Cohen
Mar 19, • 49:05
Part 8: The Other Massachusetts Miracle
Most lottery games follow a predictable life cycle: a burst of interest followed by a long decline. But something else happened with the scratch ticket, and it changed how every lottery in the country operates. ---------------------------Credits:Host and scriptwriter: Ian CossExecutive Producer: Devin Maverick RobinsProducers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian CossStory Editor: Lacy RobertsEditorial Advisor: Jenifer McKimFact Checkers: Ryan Alderman and Isabel HibbardScoring and Music Supervision:
Mar 12, • 46:32
Part 7: The Dirtiest Race in the Commonwealth
By 1986 Treasurer Bob Crane has turned the lottery into the most successful operation of its kind, but now he’s in the fight of his political life with a challenger who says he’s the real crook. To cement his legacy he will have to win one last election, and it’s a dirty one.---------------------------Credits:Host and scriptwriter: Ian CossExecutive Producer: Devin Maverick RobinsProducers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian CossStory Editor: Lacy RobertsEditorial Advisor: Jen McKimFact Checkers: R
Mar 5, • 51:05
Part 6: The Game Dreams Are Made Of
The Mass Lottery stumbles when it attempts to launch the nation’s first ‘lotto’ game. But that failure soon becomes an opportunity – and a national craze – when Treasurer Bob Crane brings in a new agency to take over the state’s marketing efforts.---------------------------Credits:Host and scriptwriter: Ian CossExecutive Producer: Devin Maverick RobinsProducers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian CossStory Editor: Lacy RobertsEditorial Advisor: Jen McKimFact Checkers: Ryan Alderman and Isabel Hibba
Feb 26, • 45:59
Part 5: The Cherry Sheets
The lottery was never just about stopping crime; it was about bringing in money. In 1980, an anti-tax ballot measure throws Massachusetts state finances into chaos, putting new pressure on the lottery to close the gap.
Feb 19, • 56:02
Part 4: The Last Mafia Boss of Boston
The state lottery can’t run the mob out of the numbers business on their own. Luckily they’ve got help from the FBI, who are just launching a daring operation of their own – to bug the headquarters of the Boston mafia.
Feb 12, • 43:48
Part 3: Have You Played Your Number?
Before the Massachusetts Lottery can claim to be number one, they have to take out the competition. So in 1976 the state lottery challenges organized crime head on by copying their most popular game: 'the numbers.'
Feb 5, • 50:52
Part 2: The Lottery Czar
When states got into the gambling business, they wanted the same thing organized crime wanted: money and power. The question now is who in government will get to wield that awesome power?
Jan 29, • 56:50
Part 1: The Instant Ticket
It’s 1974, illegal bookies are everywhere and the brand new state lottery is struggling to compete. But a simple piece of paper is about to change the game forever: the nation’s first scratch ticket. ---------------------------Credits:Host and scriptwriter: Ian CossExecutive Producer: Devin Maverick RobinsProducers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian CossStory Editor: Lacy RobertsEditorial Advisor: Jen McKimFact Checkers: Ryan Alderman and Isabel HibbardScoring and Music Supervision: Ian CossProjec
Jan 29, • 49:36
Introducing: Scratch & Win
Legal gambling is everywhere. But how did it get like this? And why can't we fully embrace it? "Scratch & Win" looks for answers in the unlikely story of America's most successful lottery, and the charismatic state treasurer who was determined to beat the mob at their own game.
Jan 22, • 4:02
A new series from the Big Dig team
Heads up: in two weeks this feed will transform into a new show produced by the same team as the Big Dig. It's called Scratch & Win. Stay tuned.
Jan 9, • 0:43
A note from the Big Dig team
Just dropping in to share some news about the show, and what's coming next.
Jun 12, 2024 • 2:50
Introducing: "What Is Owed?"
An episode from a new GBH News Podcast about reparations: "When a City Tries to Heal Itself" Boston, a city entrenched in the history of the American Revolution, creates a task force to explore the city’s history of slavery and economic discrimination and to consider reparations for Black citizens. The effort is delicately balanced to navigate political challenges – and yet it is immediately beset with delay and mismanaging, leading some city residents to wonder whether Boston is reall
Feb 29, 2024 • 32:24
Introducing: Detours from Antiques Roadshow
An episode from our colleagues at Detours: The Hardest Fact I Ever Checked Adam Monahan, producer for GBH’s Antiques Roadshow, attempts to verify what could be one of the most valuable objects to ever appear on the program: a flag from John F. Kennedy’s famed navy boat, the PT-109. With the help of a chemist, an appraiser, an author and a curator (oh, and his mom too), Adam tries to determine whether or not we have a national treasure on our hands.
Jan 29, 2024 • 36:47
Introducing: The Frontline Dispatch
An episode from our colleagues at The Frontline Dispatch: Documenting the Siege of Mariupol 20 Days in Mariupol is an unflinching, first-hand account of the early days of Russia’s invasion of the port city of Mariupol, which remains under Russian occupation to this day. Ukrainian-born director and journalist Mstyslav Chernov and his colleagues from the Associated Press were the last international journalists to remain in Mariupol as Russian troops attacked. His new film, from FRONTLIN
Jan 3, 2024 • 22:27
Part 9: Hearts and Minds
It’s been fifty years since the Big Dig was first conceived, thirty years since construction began, more than a dozen years since it was completed – and the final twist is: the project has largely delivered on its promises. How do we reconcile that reality with the scandal and outrage we’ve heard so much about? Credits: Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss Editor: Lacy Roberts Editorial Advisor: Stephanie
Nov 15, 2023 • 37:32
Part 8: I Want Justice for What Happened
Just as the project turns the corner towards completion, its entire legacy becomes clouded. The tunnels are leaking, concrete suppliers are being arrested, and everyday drivers are forced to wonder: are these tunnels safe? Credits: Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss Editor: Lacy Roberts Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss Project Manage
Nov 8, 2023 • 56:59
Part 7: The Turnpike Revolt
By the year 2000, the Big Dig has passed through many hands, but in its final years a power struggle spills into public view – over who will determine the project’s fate, and who will take responsibility for its mistakes. Credits: Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss Editor: Lacy Roberts Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss Project Manager
Nov 1, 2023 • 56:34
Part 6: The Up Down Charts
As work progresses through the 1990s and the tunnels take shape, the true cost of the Big Dig remains unknown to the public, until a series of revelations pulls down the curtain and shakes confidence in the whole project. Credits: Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss Editor: Lacy Roberts Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss Project Manager
Oct 25, 2023 • 50:07
Part 5: Hatchet Man vs. the 800 Pound Gorilla
In 1991, the Big Dig is handed off to a new leader – the brash, aggressive, hatchet-toting Jim Kerasiotes – who makes it clear he plans to shake things up. The one thing he can’t shake is the equally aggressive private company managing the project. Now they have to work together. Credits: Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss Editor: Lacy Roberts Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon Fact Checker: Lisa Wardl
Oct 18, 2023 • 53:36
Part 4: The Double Cross
The project faces an unexpected challenge on the home front: resistance from local environmentalists and residents – the very people the Big Dig was intended to please. Now, they say that Fred Salvucci has lost his way.Credits:Host and scriptwriter: Ian CossExecutive Producer: Devin Maverick RobinsProducers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian CossEditor: Lacy RobertsEditorial Advisor: Stephanie LeydonFact Checker: Lisa WardleScoring and Music Supervision: Ian CossProject Manager: Meiqian He
Oct 11, 2023 • 56:05
Part 3: All Politics is Local
The Big Dig needs federal funding. House Speaker Tip O’Neill is determined to get it; President Ronald Reagan is determined to stop it – setting up a final showdown in one of the great political rivalries of the 20th century. Credits: Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss Editor: Lacy Roberts Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss Project Man
Oct 4, 2023 • 53:32
Part 2: Unholy Alliance
In the early 1970s a radical idea took shape: tearing down Boston’s elevated downtown highway, and rebuilding it underground. But making it happen will require a grand bargain between two competing tunnel projects, and between bitter enemies. Credits: Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss Editor: Lacy Roberts Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian
Sep 27, 2023 • 52:00
Part 1: We Were Wrong
There is a strange irony behind the Big Dig: the most expensive highway project ever built in America began with a man who hated highways. This is the story of Fred Salvucci’s journey into activism, during what is perhaps the most transformative anti-highway movement in the nation’s history. Credits: Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss Editor: Lacy Roberts Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon Fact Checker
Sep 27, 2023 • 54:17