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 do we feel about the gambling industry that lotteries helped summon into being? And should the state be in this business at all? “Scratch & Win” is made by the Peabody Award-winning team behind “The Big Dig,” produced by GBH News and distributed by PRX. --------------------------- Credits: Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss Story Editor: Lacy Roberts Editorial Advisor: Jen McKim Fact Checkers: Ryan Alderman and Isabel Hibbard Scoring and Music Supervision: Ian Coss Graphic Design: Bill Miller Project Manager: Meiqian He
Can America still do big things? Can we build the ambitious projects we will need to survive climate change and improve our cities? This 9-part series looks for clues in the story of the Big Dig – one of the most notoriously troubled infrastructure projects in American history.
The nine episode series is produced by GBH News.
Credits:
Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss
Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
Producers: Isabel Hi...
Part 1: 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: ...
Part 2: 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
Fac...
Part 4: 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 Coss
Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss
Editor: Lacy Roberts
Editorial Advisor: Stephanie Leydon
Fact Checker: Lisa Wardle
S...
Part 5: 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
...
Part 6: 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 Wardl...
Part 7: 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 Wardl...
Part 8: 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 Ward...
Part 9: 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 ...
Just dropping in to share some news about the show, and what's coming next.
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.
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Credits:
Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss
Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
Producers: Isabel Hibbard an...
Part 1: 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.
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Credits:
Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss
Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss
Story Editor: Lacy Roberts
Editorial Advisor: Jenifer McKim
Fact Checkers: ...
Part 2: 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?
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Credits:
Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss
Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss
Story Editor: Lacy Roberts
Editorial Advisor: Jenifer McKim
Fact Checkers: Ryan Alderma...
Part 3: 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.'
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Credits:
Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss
Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss
Story Editor: Lacy Roberts
Editorial Advisor: Jenifer McKim
F...
Part 4: 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.
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Credits:
Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss
Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss
Story Editor: Lacy Roberts
Editorial Advisor: Jenifer Mc...
Part 5: 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.
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Credits:
Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss
Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss
Story Editor: Lacy Roberts
Editorial Advisor: Jenifer Mc...
Part 6: 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.
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Credits:
Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss
Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss
Story Editor: Lacy Roberts
...
Part 7: 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.
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Credits:
Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss
Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian C...
Part 8: 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.
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Credits:
Host and scriptwriter: Ian Coss
Executive Producer: Devin Maverick Robins
Producers: Isabel Hibbard and Ian Coss
Story Editor: Lacy Roberts
Editorial Advisor: Jenifer McKim
Fact...
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 thi...
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!
UConn basketball star Azzi Fudd brings her championship swag to iHeart Women’s Sports with Fudd Around and Find Out, a weekly podcast that takes fans along for the ride as Azzi spends her final year of college trying to reclaim the National Championship and prepare to be a first round WNBA draft pick. Ever wonder what it’s like to be a world-class athlete in the public spotlight while still managing schoolwork, friendships and family time? It’s time to Fudd Around and Find Out!
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