What is a Lottery?

Lottery is a game of chance in which people try to win a prize by matching numbers. The prize money is typically very large, but the odds of winning are very low. Many, but not all, states have state-sponsored lotteries. Private lottery games are also common, and have been used for raising funds to finance projects such as building colleges (e.g., Harvard and Yale). In colonial-era America, public lotteries were a popular means to raise money for street repairs, wharves, and church building. Benjamin Franklin sponsored a lottery in 1776 to raise money for cannons to defend Philadelphia against the British, but it was unsuccessful.

The word “lottery” derives from the Latin loterie, meaning ‘casting of lots’. The casting of lots for decisions and determining fates has a long history in human culture, and several instances are recorded in the Bible. The lottery as a vehicle for material gain, however, is quite modern. The first recorded public lotteries in the West were held for municipal repairs in Rome, and Francis I of France permitted the establishment of a lottery system in several cities from 1520 to 1539.

During the immediate post-World War II period, it seemed possible that lotteries could allow states to provide an array of social safety net services without imposing a heavy burden on the poor. But, as inflation accelerated, that arrangement began to crumble. Today, lotteries are no longer a way for governments to avoid putting a big dent in their social safety nets, but they remain an effective mechanism for capturing gambling revenues.