Jackson Lears

The United States is a nation founded by Puritans who believed that God would reward men and women who worked hard with prosperity and affluence. The Protestant work ethic-the belief that anyone, regardless of background, can become a "selfmade" success by working diligently toward his or her goals-has embedded itself in American culture. Because gambling is an activity that favors luck over work, it has regularly been labeled a vice that undermines principal American values.

In the following essay, Jackson Lears examines the rising tension between luck and the Protestant work ethic in American culture as legalized gambling has spread to nearly every corner of the country. The author contends that gambling's critics overlook the fact that the United States was founded by risk—taking colonists and thrives on a capitalist system centered around chance. Gambling is popular because it...