The giveaway
The man who said those words was former
Federal Communications Commission chairman Mark S. Fowler, who was in charge of
the giveaway. The date was March 30, 1985. Fowler was addressing a Senate
subcommittee on communications, trying to get Congress to help him turn off the
spigot of public money.
It was a frustrating time for Fowler; nothing was
done, and the result was a five-year opportunity for a few thousand sharpies in
and out of government. Fowler’s welfare program was John Mica’s ticket
to easy millions.
It was called the cellular telephone service
lottery.
On announced occasions, beginning in 1984, in a windowless
room on the eighth floor of the FCC building, three big air-blown tanks full of
pingpong balls were activated as groups of 30 to 50 anxious players looked on.
Like Meyer Lansky or a Wisconsin tribe, the federal government was in the
gambling business. But players of FCC Cellular Bingo, unlike the naive pigeons
of Vegas, placed their bets for free or nearly free. And payoffs ranged from a
few million dollars to hundreds of millions.
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