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 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

“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

17hr 45min

Thumbnail for "Introducing: The Big Dig".

Can America still do big things?

September 13, 20235min 3sec6.07 MB

Thumbnail for "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.

October 25, 202350min 7sec60.16 MB

Thumbnail for "A note from The Big Dig team".

June 12, 20242min 50sec3.41 MB

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.

September 27, 202354min 17sec65.16 MB

Thumbnail for "Part 2: Unholy Alliance".

In the early 1970s a radical idea took shape: tearing down Boston’s elevated downtown highway, and rebuilding it underground.

September 27, 202352min62.43 MB

Thumbnail for "Part 4: The Double Cross".

The project faces an unexpected challenge on the home front: resistance from local environmentalists and residents.

October 11, 202356min 5sec67.32 MB

Thumbnail for "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.

October 18, 202353min 37sec64.36 MB

Thumbnail for "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.

November 1, 202356min 34sec67.9 MB

Thumbnail for "Part 8: I Want Justice for What Happened".

Just as the project turns the corner towards completion, its entire legacy becomes clouded.

November 8, 202356min 59sec68.4 MB

Thumbnail for "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.

November 15, 202337min 32sec45.06 MB

Thumbnail for "Introducing: Scratch & Win".

January 22, 20254min 2sec4.85 MB

Thumbnail for "Part 1: The Instant Ticket".

January 29, 202549min 36sec59.54 MB

Thumbnail for "Part 2: The Lottery Czar".

January 29, 202556min 50sec68.22 MB

Thumbnail for "Part 3: Have You Played Your Number?".

February 5, 202550min 52sec61.06 MB

Thumbnail for "Part 4: The Last Mafia Boss of Boston".

February 12, 202543min 48sec52.58 MB

Thumbnail for "Part 5: The Cherry Sheets".

February 19, 202556min 2sec67.26 MB

Thumbnail for "Part 6: The Game Dreams Are Made Of".

February 26, 202545min 59sec49.52 MB

Thumbnail for "Part 7: The Dirtiest Race in the Commonwealth".

March 5, 202551min 5sec61.32 MB

Thumbnail for "Part 8: The Other Massachusetts Miracle".

March 12, 202546min 32sec55.86 MB

Thumbnail for "Why does sports betting feel different?".

March 19, 202549min 5sec47.13 MB

Thumbnail for "Should we be nostalgic for machine politics?".

March 26, 202539min 10sec37.62 MB

Thumbnail for "Why do some parts of government work better than others?".

April 2, 202543min 55sec42.18 MB

Thumbnail for "How to sue the government, and win from NPR's Throughline".

April 9, 202545min 20sec43.54 MB

Thumbnail for "An architecture mystery from Antiques Roadshow Detours".

May 14, 202529min 35sec28.41 MB

Thumbnail for "The Birth of McCarthyism from American Experience Presents".

Fueled by his humble Wisconsin farm roots and wartime service, Senator Joseph McCarthy rises to power by stoking America's Cold War fears of communism, transforming from a military veteran into a polarizing demagogue whose name would become synonymous with political paranoia and persecution.

May 21, 202527min 59sec33.61 MB

Part 6: The Up Down Charts

October 25, 202350min 7sec

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: Meiqian He