Money. Gobs of it. In the blink of an eye - or the drop of a ball— it's all yours.
Everyone dreams about striking it rich by winning a lottery. We all feverishly line up to purchase our tickets, and watch TV or scan the newspapers to see if we have won, even though the odds are better that we will be struck by lightning. Still, we perservere, because no matter what else happens this week, you can be sure that someone, somewhere, will win the big one.
Lotteries are an unparalleled popular phenomenon. But what happens after the winners are revealed, and the checks have been issued? How does winning a lottery change one's life?
Luck of the Draw profiles past winners of big lotteries, and how their windfall impacted their lives, mostly for the better, but interestingly sometimes for the worse, such was the case of a Florida widow who won $5 million in 1984; three years later, she lost her mansion and fancy cars, and owed the IRS $500,000 for back taxes. Eventually she was arrested for trying to hire a contract killer to take out her daughter-in-law, whom she blamed for her lottery misfortune. The book also depicts the past, present and future of lotteries in North America and the world over, and includes a special chapter on the revived phenomenon of big-time TV game show winners. Who wants to be a millionaire? Seemingly, everyone.
In a country where eighty percent of adults have played a lottery, creating a multi-billion dollar industry, Luck of the Draw is an insightful inside look at lotteries, its winners, and its losers.
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About the Author
Chris Gudgeon is the author of numerous books, including Consider the Fish, Stan Rogers, and The Naked Truth: The Untold Story of Sex in Canada, as well as the Arsenal Pulp Press titles You're Not As Good As You Think You Are: A Demotivational Guide, a humorous guide on "demotivation"; Out of This World, a biography of poet Milton Acorn; and (with his writer wife Barbara Stewart) Luck of the Draw, on lottery winners. He has written articles and essays for such publications as MAD, National Lampoon,and Playboy. Chris and Barbara have three sons and they live in Victoria, BC Canada.
Barbara Stewart is the author of a book on women's hockey as well as Blood Lines (Arsenal), quotations on vampires; she also co-authored Luck of the Draw, about lottery winners, with her husband, writer Chris Gudgeon. They have three sons and live in Victoria, BC Canada.
Customer Reviews
I waited a long time for this book to arrive at my local bookstore, almost as long as I've been waiting to hit a lottery jackpot. (That still hasn't happened.) I was disappointed when I finally sat down to read it. The authors jump from story to story within paragraphs, many starting with "So-and-so of Middle of Nowhere, Kansas, found out that what glitters isn't always gold." Rarely do they go in-depth into what it is really like to win a lottery. They interviewed many winners, it seems, but haven't been told much beyond the moment the winners discover they've won the jackpot and pick up their tickets. Most of the people who win lotteries do the same thing with their earnings: buy a new car, a new house, settle debts, go on a trip. Then they disappear from sight. Who cares! Buy lottery tickets instead of this book -- you'll be happier even if none of the tickets is a winner.
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