What is a Lottery?

Lottery: a way to win big money by chance, in which numbers are drawn at random and the winners receive cash or other prizes. A lottery is often a public, state-sponsored game that provides a source of revenue for a government or other entity.

Lotteries have been around for centuries, and were used in colonial America to raise funds for a variety of projects, including paving streets, building wharves, and even building churches. Some of the most prestigious universities owe their existence to lotteries, and George Washington even sponsored a lottery in 1768 to build roads across the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Today, 44 states and the District of Columbia run a lottery, according to the BBC. The six states that don’t (you can’t play Powerball or Mega Millions in Alabama, Alaska, Utah, Mississippi, and Nevada) have their own reasons for not running a lottery: Alabama and Utah are motivated by religious concerns; the states of Mississippi and Nevada already collect gambling revenues without a separate lottery; and Alaska has a budget surplus that doesn’t make it a priority to introduce one.