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One Man's Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions
Collins
September 2007
On Sale: September 18, 2007
256 pages
ISBN: 0061284173
EAN: 9780061284175
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction Memoir
In his wry and funny memoir, Edward Ugel tells the story of
America's addiction to the lottery from an astonishing angle. At age twenty-six, Ed found himself broke, knee-deep in
gambling debt, and moving back into his parents' basement.
It all changed, however, when he serendipitously landed a
job as a salesman for The Firm--a company that offered
up-front cash to lottery winners in exchange for their prize
money, often paid in agonizingly small annual payments, some
lasting up to twenty-five years. For the better part of the
ensuing decade, Ed spent his time closing deals with lottery
winners, making a lucrative and legitimate--if sometimes
not-so-nice--living by taking advantage of their weaknesses
. . . weaknesses he knew all too well. Ed met hundreds of lottery winners and saw up-close the
often hilarious, sometime sad outcome when great wealth is
dropped on ordinary people. Once lottery winners realized
their "dream-come-true" multimillion jackpots were not all
that they were cracked up to be, Ed would knock on their
door, offering them the cash they wanted-and often
desperately need. This cash sometimes came at a high price,
but winners were rarely in a position to walk the other way.
As Ed learned, few of them had the financial savvy to keep
up with the lottery-winner lifestyle. In fact, some just
wanted their old lives back. A charmingly neurotic gambler, Ed traveled deep into the
heart of the country where he discovered the American Dream
looks a lot like a day at the casino. And Ed knows casinos.
In fact, his own taste for gambling gave him a unique
insight into lottery winners: he intimately understood their
mindset, making it that much easier to relate to them. And
like lottery winners, Ed struggled to find balance in his
own life as his increasing success earned him a bigger and
bigger salary. Even as he relished his accomplishments, he
grappled with the question: "If you are good at something
that is bad for some people, does that make you a bad person?" Ed Ugel takes the readers inside the captivating world of
lottery winners and shows us how lotteries and gambling have
become deeply inscribed in every aspect of American life
shaping our image of success and good fortune. Money for
Nothing is a witty, wise, and often outrageously funny
account of high expectations and easy money.
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