The dipole strength of the nuclide Zn-66 was studied in photon-scattering experiments using bremsstrahlung produced with electron beams of energies of 7.5 and 13.4 MeV at the gamma ELBE facility as well as using quasimonoenergetic and linearly polarized photon beams of 30 energies within the range of 4.3 to 9.9 MeV at the HI gamma S facility. A total of 128 J = 1 states were identified, among them 9 with 1(+) and 86 with 1(-) assignments. The quasicontinuum of unresolved transitions was included in the analysis of the spectra and the intensities of branching transitions were estimated on the basis of simulations of statistical gamma-ray cascades. As a result, the photoabsorption cross section up to the neutron-separation energy was determined and compared with predictions of the statistical reaction model. The experimental M1 strengths from resolved 1(+) states are compared with results of large-scale shell-model calculations.