What is a Lottery?

A lottery is a scheme for allocating prizes by chance. The word is probably derived from the Dutch noun lot meaning “fate.”

State-sponsored lotteries have become a ubiquitous feature of American life. They are a significant source of revenue and generate controversy because they involve the public in gambling and encourage people to spend money on tickets without any guarantees that they will win. Moreover, they do not seem to raise much money for the poor or problem gamblers, and their profits are often concentrated among a few business interests and state legislators.

In the 17th century, the Low Countries were accustomed to organizing lotteries for various purposes including raising money for the poor or for town fortifications. At the time, it was considered that lotteries were a painless form of taxation. Lotteries became widely used in colonial America for a variety of public purposes including paving streets, building wharves, and providing educational facilities such as Harvard and Yale. George Washington even sponsored a lottery in 1768 to build a road across the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Lottery officials promote the games by emphasizing how much money they bring in for the state and promoting the fun of purchasing and scratching a ticket. The message is that it is a game that everyone should play because the money will benefit the state and its citizens, but it does not put the proceeds in the context of overall state revenue and obscures the regressive nature of lottery gaming.