Lottery, the game whereby people buy tickets for a chance to win a prize, is one of the most popular forms of gambling. People in the United States spent upward of $100 billion on lottery tickets in 2021. State governments promote the games as ways to raise money for education and other public services without raising taxes. But just how meaningful that revenue is, and whether it’s worth the trade-offs to people who lose money, deserves scrutiny.
The casting of lots for decisions and fates has a long record, including in the Bible, but arranging lotteries to raise money for material gain is relatively recent. It was introduced to America with the founding of the colonies, when Benjamin Franklin sponsored a lottery to support the American Revolution.
Generally, for a competition to be considered a lottery, it must be open to anyone who pays to enter. It must also involve a process that allocates prizes according to chance, even if later stages require the participants to use skill.
The most common form of lottery is the scratch-off ticket, which accounts for 60 to 80 percent of all lottery sales nationwide. This is a highly regressive form of lottery because it draws players from lower-income groups and minorities. The next most popular type is the daily numbers game, which attracts upper-middle-class players. In general, lotteries have a strong appeal to people who covet the things that money can buy, and it is often difficult for them to resist its lure.