Money for Nothing

This wry and funny memoir tells the story of America's addiction to gambling from an astonishing angle. At age twenty-six, broke and knee-deep in gambling debt, Ed Ugel serendipitously landed a job as a salesman for "The Firm," a company that offered up-front cash to lottery winners in exchange for their gradually-doled-out prize money. Ed made a lucrative living by taking advantage of lottery winners’ weaknesses—weaknesses he knew all too well. As Ed saw up close the often hilarious, sometimes sad outcome when great wealth is dropped on ordinary people who rarely have the financial savvy to keep up with the lottery-winner lifestyle, he discovered that the American Dream looks a lot like a day at the casino. And like those lottery winners, Ed struggled to find a balance in his own life as his increasing success earned him a bigger and bigger salary.