Lottery

A competition based on chance in which numbered tickets are sold for prizes. State lotteries are popular in the United States and around the world and help raise money for a variety of purposes. Privately organized lotteries are also common.

Lottery is a centuries-old practice whose roots are in the Old Testament, where God instructed Moses to take a census of the people of Israel and then divide land by lot; in ancient Roman games such as the apophoreta, which was a favorite dinner entertainment; and in the drawing of names for Saturnalian feasts. The earliest public lotteries were used to raise money for building town fortifications and to help the poor.

The modern era of state lotteries began with New Hampshire’s introduction in 1964. Since then, almost every state has established a lottery. State lotteries have remarkably similar characteristics: they legislate a monopoly for themselves; establish a state agency or public corporation to run them (as opposed to licensing private firms in exchange for a share of the proceeds); begin operations with a modest number of relatively simple games; and, under pressure to generate additional revenues, gradually expand into keno and video poker and increase promotional efforts.

While there are many legitimate reasons to support state lotteries, critics of the lottery have raised a number of concerns. These include the effect of gambling promotion on poor people and problem gamblers; the deteriorating value of the prize pool (since jackpots are typically paid out in an annuity over three decades, inflation dramatically erodes the current cash amount); and the general perception that state lotteries are operating at cross-purposes with the public interest.