America's New Favorite PastimeAs the economy sours for people at the bottom, the long odds have become their only odds for making a better life. In this stunning collection of articles from US News and World Report, Newsday, the Nation and elsewhere, Jennifer Vogel has assembled an indictment of gambling that leaves nothing to chance.In Crapped Out: How Gambling Ruins the Economy and Destroys Lives you will meet: -- The state politician, desperate to balance the budget, who turns to the gaming industry to generate revenue in the age of the shrinking tax base; -- The lottery commissions, who will tell you they never target the poor, but who sell more tickets proportionately to lower income players, creating the most regressive tax system imaginable; -- The voter who is promised money from gambling for schools and the environment but winds up empty-handed; -- The advertising industry that is not legally bound to tell players what a rip-off the games are.-- The mob who is thriving at the numbers game once again -- because players realize organized crime offers better odds than state lotteries; -- The casino owners -- who are in it to win it; -- And the gambler, whose need for hope is manipulated by an industry feeding on the science of addiction.-- But Vogel also chronicles the sober response of neighbors fighting casino developments -- and winning.