A lottery is a form of gambling in which numbers are drawn to determine the winners of a prize. It is a form of chance, and the prizes can be anything from cash to goods to housing units. A lottery is also a term used to describe other situations in which something depends on luck or chance: “Who gets picked for the job?” “The judges are assigned by lottery.” “The judge who hears this case will be chosen by a lottery of available judges.” Webster’s Dictionary says that the word lottery comes from the Dutch noun lot, meaning fate, and Middle English noun loterie, meaning the act of drawing lots. Lotteries are legalized forms of gambling and have been popular for centuries. They have been used to finance everything from the construction of buildings and bridges to wars and civil wars.
Currently, state governments hold lotteries to raise money for a variety of programs and services. The state legislature establishes a public corporation or agency to run the lottery; decides whether it will be a monopoly or private, in which case it is licensed to an outside firm; begins operations with a small number of relatively simple games; and, due to constant pressure for additional revenues, progressively expands its offerings by adding new games.
In the immediate post-World War II period, state governments were able to expand their array of social safety nets without especially onerous taxes on the middle and working classes. Many states viewed the lottery as an easy source of such “painless” revenue, and it quickly became part of state culture. People who play the lottery do so because they enjoy gambling, and advertisers spend enormous sums to convince them that they will be rewarded for their enjoyment by winning huge jackpots.
The fact that a lottery is based on chance means that the odds of winning are low. But even so, people continue to play the lottery, and it is not uncommon for individuals to devote $50 or $100 a week to this activity. Some of them are quite successful, and they often defy stereotypes about lottery players, like the idea that they are irrational, or that they spend their money recklessly.
Because the lottery is run as a business with an eye to maximizing revenues, advertising necessarily focuses on persuading people to spend their money. But such an approach raises a number of questions, including whether it is appropriate for the government to promote gambling and encourage people to spend their money on it; whether such promotion leads to negative effects on poorer individuals or problem gamblers; and whether it is at cross-purposes with other, more legitimate public functions. It is difficult to answer these questions conclusively, but it is clear that there is a long history of concern about the role of the lottery in American society.
