Traveling to a casino and buying scratch-off lottery tickets are not typical elements of a college class, however, in the new First-Year Seminar (FYS) “Gambling: Here and Everywhere,” these risky gambles are class lessons and homework assignments.
This course, taught by mathematics professor Derek Smith, seeks to teach students about the role that gambling plays in society, paying attention to its different forms.
The class not only examines how gambling works but also the social and economic implications of gambling, according to Emma Marsh ’27, a student in the class.
“The big topic that we’ve been talking about recently is [state lotteries] and how they kind of target their marketing toward poor groups,” Marsh said.
Makenna McCall ‘27, another student in the class, feels that this perspective on gambling is particularly fascinating and has allowed her to see the lottery through a different lens.
“It’s just like state economies, which is something that I’ve never thought about before because we are specifically learning about how [the lottery], at least, supposedly benefits different programs,” McCall said. “But in California, they don’t really advertise it as something for charity. It’s just like something that goes to the state … [that’s] a unique perspective that I’ve never even considered before.”
Marsh feels that one of the most interesting aspects of the class is seeing how gambling impacts social issues.
“I didn’t realize the effect it has on real people … especially people who are already marginalized and stuff and how nobody is really paying that much attention to [gambling’s effect on people],” Marsh said.
Smith wants his students to understand the extent to which gambling affects citizens and benefits big corporations.
“One important goal is for students to see the ways that governments and corporations use various forms of gambling to enrich themselves and to see who benefits and who loses in these transactions,” Smith wrote in an email.
Another unique element of the course is its integration of actual gambling into the fabric of the class. A recent homework assignment had students purchase scratch-off lottery tickets to see how many would make a profit from the tickets.
“I did not win,” Marsh said. “And a couple people did win, but the most that they won was $2. It was the price of a ticket. [The] most that happened was that they won that money back.”
The class is also taking a trip to a casino in New York, which Smith believes will be an interesting and exciting experience for students.
“It will be a fun trip for the students, and by that point in the course they’ll be well positioned to interrogate the casino environment and understand how the various parts of it work together to help separate casino guests from their money over time,” Smith wrote.
“I’ve never really been in a casino,” Marsh said. “It’s gonna be an all-day thing where we go, we take a bus to this casino, and then we stay there and I guess play. There’s an educational purpose to this.”
According to McCall, Smith also brings the deceptiveness of gambling into the classroom in fun, interactive ways.
“I say [Smith] plays mind games with us, which is something he’s accepted,” McCall said. “On the very first day of class, he laid cards out and said that if someone drew a red they’d [get an A] and if [they drew a] black they’d get an F in the class … He had a contract written out and right before someone signed he’s like, ‘Actually, we can’t do this.’”
Both McCall and Marsh feel that this class provides an interesting untapped perspective on social justice and how gambling disproportionately harms marginalized communities.
“It connects so many different ideas to learn about … the economic side of it or the cultural standpoint,” McCall said.
“For me, what makes it the most interesting is just kind of like the social justice aspect of it,” Marsh said.
