PHOENIX—In a strip-mall bodega where the refrigerated air smells faintly of microwave burritos and unfulfilled ambition, a man named Ernesto—who swears he once shook hands with the Pope’s second cousin—just handed over six crumpled dollars for a slip of paper promising him a one-in-302-million chance at the Arizona Lottery’s “The Pick.” Half a world away,…
Maryland’s Little Gamble: How a Mid-Atlantic Scratch-Off Became a Mirror for the Planet’s Desperate Daydreams By Diego “House Always Wins” Morales, Senior Correspondent, Dave’s Locker BALTIMORE—On the surface, the Maryland Lottery looks like any other state-run numbers racket: garishly colored tickets, an app that pings like a needy ex, and billboards promising that someone, somewhere,…
Lotto Texas: A Lone-Star Fever Dream in an Age of Global Discontent By Our Senior Correspondent, Somewhere between Houston and Helsinki AUSTIN—Every Wednesday and Saturday night, while most of the planet is doom-scrolling through war-crime footage or calculating how many euros are left before civilization’s next rolling blackout, the good people of Texas gather around…
