Lottery is a form of gambling in which people purchase tickets to win a prize based on the drawing of numbers or symbols. The games are regulated by the state, and prizes may be cash or goods. Most states offer a variety of lottery games, including scratch-off tickets and daily games where participants select numbers from a fixed pool of numbers.
The word lottery may be derived from the Middle Dutch word lotere, from the verb loten, meaning “to draw” (Oxford English Dictionary), or from the Latin phrase tonus, meaning “time”. Lotteries have long been popular with the public as a way to raise funds for projects such as town fortifications and for poor relief. The first known public lotteries are found in town records from the 15th century in the Low Countries.
In modern times, lotteries have become popular with voters as a means for funding government services without the need for especially onerous taxes on working-class and middle-class citizens. The main argument in favor of state lotteries has been that they provide a source of “painless” revenue: players voluntarily spend their money for the benefit of society.
Lottery games vary in complexity and prize amounts, but all state-run lotteries follow similar basic models. They legislate a monopoly for themselves; establish a public agency or corporation to run the games (as opposed to licensing private firms in return for a share of the profits); begin operations with a modest number of relatively simple games; and, because of pressure for additional revenues, progressively expand their offerings by adding new games.
