A lottery is an arrangement whereby prizes, such as money, goods or services, are allocated by a process that relies wholly on chance. In the United States, state-run lotteries are the most common form of this type of gambling. The term also applies to an arrangement whereby people buy tickets and the numbers are chosen randomly, such as in a game of Lotto.
The first recorded lotteries were held in the Low Countries in the 15th century, to raise funds for town fortifications and to help the poor. By the 19th century, public lotteries were widespread in Europe. In the US, it’s estimated that Americans spent $100 billion on lottery tickets in 2021.
Lottery commissions rely on two main messages to sell their product. The first is that playing the lottery is fun. You can see this on the billboards that dot the roads, with their images of big jackpots. The second is that buying a ticket supports your community or your state, which sounds very nice and moral.
But the percentage of lottery revenue that reaches local governments and educational institutions is very small, especially when you compare it with the overall size of state budgets. And it’s not clear what kind of impact these dollars have. What’s more, the message that lottery players are performing a civic duty is largely a myth. In reality, the vast majority of lottery players are disproportionately lower-income, less educated, nonwhite and male.