History Matters: The Numbers Racket DVD

• Additional Details
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
• Rating: Not Rated
• Number of Discs: 1
• Run Time: 70 Minutes
• Region: Region 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Language: English
• Studio: History Channel
• DVD Release Date: December 29, 2003

Hear from state legislators, lottery players and a jackpot winner in this look at state-sponsored gambling.

• Hear from the legislators who support legalized gambling and its many critics.
• A kaleidoscopic look at America's long fascination with games of chance.
• Meet the men and women who play the numbers--including one lucky jackpot winner.

For decades, the U.S. government condemned gambling as a vice detrimental to society. From corner bookies to mafia kingpins, people involved in the numbers game were frequent targets of raids, arrests and investigations. But over the last dozen years or so, a remarkable transformation has taken place: the same authorities that used to condemn gambling are taking bets themselves in the form of state-sponsored lotteries, "mega-million" games and instant-winner cards.

THE NUMBERS RACKET looks at the long and colorful history of gambling in America, from the Colonial era to the rise of reservation casinos. No matter the era or the location, it has always targeted and tempted the poor, packaging hope with a "dollar and a dream" or "a penny for a prize." Is it hidden taxation, government hypocrisy, or a way to strike it rich?

HISTORY MATTERS probes every side of the issue in search of the real answers to a persistent problem that has suddenly come to be seen as a solution.