The traditional wisdom regarding the decision to adopt a lottery was that state policymakers turned to lotteries in an effort to avoid raising taxes. Yet at least one seminal study (Frances Stokes Berry and William Berry, “State Lottery Adoptions as Policy Innovations: An Event History Analysis,” American Political Science Review 84 [1990]: 395–415) suggests that such adoptions are most likely when the fiscal health of the state is relatively strong, among other things. These findings present some interesting and somewhat perplexing questions for those who study the gambling industry. If fiscal health of the state does not have a substantial impact on gambling adoptions, why then are the political battles surrounding those adoptions so often framed in terms of revenues? The revenues generated by even the most successful state lotteries and casinos are relatively small when compared to traditional taxes, such as sales and income tax (with the noteworthy exception of Nevada casinos, which have historically generated substantial portions of that state's total revenue). An important area for policy research is whether casinos are being viewed by states primarily as revenue generators or in some other terms. In the case of casinos, much of the discussion in some states has centered on the economic development possibilities of the casino industry.

Patrick A. Pierce and Donald E. Miller provide some important answers to these questions about the spread of legal gambling specifically, but their findings also provide updates to existing theories about the spread of state policy generally, and about the roles played by various political actors as policy innovations occur. For this reason, their book has a relatively wide appeal even among those who do not study the gambling industry.

The theoretical underpinning of the book is sound; Pierce and Miller have built a model that begins with the literature on morality politics in the tradition of Kenneth J. Meier's (1994) The Politics of Sin: Drugs, Alcohol, and Public Policy. They have substantially extended the basic morality politics model, however, to account for “the roles of policy entrepreneurs, policy typologies, the mass public, interest groups, and public officials in producing the politics of lotteries and casinos” (p. 5). They show how existing policy (in this case, typically the existence of an established lottery in a state or the successful implementation of corporate casino gaming in a neighboring state) affects the new policy under consideration.

Implicit in the theory behind the book is its strong attachment to the policy innovation literature and its notion that many types of groups will be involved in the process. Pierce and Miller are careful to draw distinctions between the rationale and motives of general interest groups (in this case exemplified by religious groups opposed to gambling on moral grounds) and the more narrow and specific interests of industry groups (such as the pro-casino interests of gaming corporations or the anti-casino interests of many in the horse race industry). They note: “Legalized casino gambling may also affect seemingly unrelated industries. Casinos do not simply offer the opportunity to strike it rich at the roulette wheel…. [C]asinos routinely ‘comp’ food—provide it free of charge—for their patrons. No restaurant owner can be happy with this competitive situation with casinos” (p. 48). In their attempt to move beyond the basics, the authors show the evolution of political strategies that provide so much interesting detail for the policy analyst. Their format and method could be easily copied by others studying very different policy arenas.

The book's layout is straightforward and relatively easy to follow. It provides an enjoyable read for the novice (someone with little to no prior knowledge of lottery and casino politics), while offering some interesting insights that should prove valuable to those well versed in the industry and its politics. Beginning with some historical information about various forms of gambling and a chapter outlining the theoretical foundations of the text, the authors move quickly to an examination first of state lotteries and then casino gambling.

It is here that the book bogs down somewhat under the sheer weight of the subject matter. While important distinctions exist between corporate and Indian casino gaming, both in terms of the legal framework under which adoption can occur and the potential gains in revenue or economic development to the state, Pierce and Miller appear to have made little effort to flesh out those distinctions or to consider their impacts upon the complex quantitative models they employ. They fail to address these concerns or state whether their overall statistical model of casino adoption includes or excludes Indian gaming. Likewise in the lottery and casino chapters, the authors provide very brief “postscripts” that unfortunately whet the reader's appetite for information that is never provided. These and similar flaws of omission are only minor distractions, however, from what is overall a sound review of the politics shaping lottery and casino policy.

Among the great strengths of the book is its methodology. Combining full-blown quantitative analyses, such as their event history models of gambling adoptions with carefully researched case studies of adoption attempts in Illinois and in Florida, provides both explanatory power and rich detail.

Pierce and Miller have written a solid and readable piece of scholarship to add to the growing body of literature dealing with the politics of the gambling industry. They conclude that as public morals have shifted—particularly as soon as government became involved in the “sin” business of lotteries and casinos—citizen groups and objections on moral or public health grounds faded away amid the growing noise of interest group lobbying. This key finding has ramifications for the many morality policy questions of the day; as governments recognize gay marriages, for example, or legalize euthanasia, policy analysts may look for similar patterns of policy evolution to occur. That possibility makes Gambling Politics an important read for all students of the policy process.