cover image Jackpot Nation: Rambling and Gambling Across Our Landscape of Luck

Jackpot Nation: Rambling and Gambling Across Our Landscape of Luck

Richard Hoffer. HarperCollins Publishers, $24.95 (241pp) ISBN 978-0-06-076144-8

Describing a specifically American obsession with luck and risk-taking, going back to the Pilgrims who struck out for Plymouth, author and Sports Illustrated senior writer Hoffer (A Savage Business: The Comeback and Comedown of Mike Tyson) takes a well-meaning but half-baked tour of the U.S., crafting an ode to craps and country along the way. While the comparison between Puritans and gamblers is intriguing, as are the connections between legal betting and public education budgets (which make gambling ""a civic duty!""), these ideas are only vaguely sketched out. Instead, Hoffer keeps the mood light and egregious, dealing out amusing cross-country dispatches and breezy history lessons, proving entirely cavalier about everything from the wild inefficiency of ""charitable gambling"" to gambling addiction (""the risks to individuals are fairly minimal""), in spite of his own family-jeopardizing $100,000 loss. Anyone wishing for a piercing look into the heart of an American vice should look elsewhere, but fellow bettors will find Hoffer's cross-country casino spree-full of big risks and bigger personalities-worth a roll.