When Massachusetts celebrates its pioneering spirit — the first public library, the invention of the telephone, and so on — it doesn’t usually mention its groundbreaking role in state-sponsored gambling. But the state’s willingness to innovate in the numbers game — the first instant scratch ticket, a splashy, edgy advertising campaign — is how Massachusetts, despite its Puritan heritage, built the most successful lottery in the country.

That’s one theme in “Scratch & Win,” the engrossing eight-part podcast from GBH News and PRX about the unlikely rise of what some call “the other Massachusetts Miracle” — that is, our phenomenally lucrative state lottery, still raking in the megabucks more than 50 years after the first number was drawn. “The Massachusetts lottery was willing to take risks, to try new things in ways that other states eventually followed,” said Ian Coss, the podcast’s lead producer and host. “That’s a big part of it.”

The lottery wasn’t always the $6 billion revenue juggernaut it is today. Most states entered the gambling business gingerly, putting former FBI agents or academic statisticians in charge to bolster public trust. But under the decades-long direction of the roughish state treasurer Robert Q. Crane, Massachusetts went big into state-sponsored gambling at a time when you still couldn’t buy alcohol on Sundays.

“Scratch & Win” chronicles the ethnic and cultural crosscurrents of Massachusetts in the 1970s, of Yankee probity yielding to Irish political patronage. One fascinating tidbit is that the first states to establish lotteries all had large Catholic populations, because church bingos had lessened some of gambling’s social stigma. Part history lesson, part morality tale, it’s a complex story of rags-to-riches dreams that are quintessentially American at the same time they run counter to national ideals of hard work and merit. (I was among those interviewed for the series.)

The Massachusetts lottery really hit its stride in the 1980s, when a confluence of factors supercharged its growth. First, the property tax revolt slashed revenues for cities and towns, making the state desperate for new sources of income; gambling was justified as a kind of voluntary taxation.

Next, the FBI accelerated its pursuit of organized crime, decapitating Gennaro Angiulo’s North End mob and with it a competing numbers racket that was by some estimates the most profitable Mafia-run operation in the country.

Finally, the Reagan era ushered in a cultural shift that celebrated ostentatious wealth, reflected in popular TV shows such as “Dynasty.” Everyone wanted their shot. In 1984, revenues at the lottery doubled. By 1987, according to the podcast, 70 percent of Massachusetts adults played the Megabucks game on a regular basis.

But how do we as a society feel about the fact that our lottery pulls in more dollars per capita than any other state — on average, $1,037 a year for every adult? Or that taxpayer dollars are spent on slick ads that push scratch tickets as Mother’s Day gifts? Or that the money gambled — let’s just call it the money lost — comes mostly from lower-income communities that can least afford it, while wealthier communities — even some that don’t even sell lottery tickets — still reap the benefits of local aid?

Judging from continued robust sales — even the advent of casino gambling hasn’t substantially eroded lottery revenues — what we think about it is a massive shrug. Perhaps the most pointed comment in the podcast comes from Kevin Weeks, former lieutenant of mob boss Whitey Bulger, whom Coss interviewed about Bulger’s rivalry with the Angiulo mob. Weeks wasn’t surprised that the FBI’s hit on Angiulo’s numbers racket did little to reduce gambling overall. “When the government sees money to be made, they get involved,” he told Coss. “They’re the biggest gang in the country.”

The podcast walks a delicate line between celebrating the lottery’s success and probing its less attractive underside. “I wanted to make you root for the lottery and also feel a little uncomfortable about it,” Coss said. Every episode ends, appropriately, with a recorded clip of Crane, a natural showman, singing the old tune “You made me love you (I didn’t want to do it)” to a group of seniors.

Today, gambling is ubiquitous, unleashing a flood of other financial risk-taking behaviors: cryptocurrencies, meme stocks, the so-called “prop bets” in professional sports that have little to do with a game’s outcome. Now the state is developing online lottery sales to attract a younger audience. Governor Maura Healey’s current proposed budget relies on almost $2 billion in gaming and lottery revenues. Maybe Massachusetts didn’t want to love gambling, but as many players have found out, it’s addictive.

Renée Loth’s column appears regularly in the Globe.