El interés público y las desigualdades en el régimen laboral de la Lotería Nacional para la Beneficencia Pública, México, 1920-1932

This article examines aspects of the labour system of Mexico’s National Lottery for Public Welfare between 1920 and 1932. It demonstrates how the rhetoric of the public interest and the generation of charitable funding legitimised the state’s expansion of this gambling enterprise. Nevertheless, the focus of this research is on the internal labour relations of this public enterprise, scrutinising the working conditions of those employed by the state institution. The study critically reveals the institutionalisation of inequalities between a small group of agents and the majority of lottery ticket vendors, who received unequal pay, benefits, and employment terms. These disparities were compounded by conditions that reproduced systems of patronage, restricting social mobility and undermining the representation of vendor organisations. Drawing on the minutes from the Lottery and Public Welfare Board, rarely used in prior research, the article analyses discourses around state intervention, the public interest, and redistributive policies in the 1920s and 1930s through a micro-social relations and inequality-focused lens.