Lottery is a type of gambling game in which people buy numbered tickets and hope to win a prize. Lotteries are considered gambling because participants must pay something (money, property, or services) to participate and the results are based on chance. In the United States, there are several state and federally sponsored lotteries. Privately organized lotteries are also common, such as those for units in a subsidized housing project or kindergarten placements.
In the early days of the American Revolution, the Continental Congress used a lottery to raise money for the army. Benjamin Franklin also tried to use a lottery to raise funds for a battery of cannons to defend Philadelphia. The concept was popular, and by 1826, there were 420 public lotteries in the United States. These were not the types of gambling lotteries now commonly seen, but rather government and commercial promotions in which chance played a role.
As it became increasingly difficult to finance the expansion of government services, the lottery reemerged as a common way to raise revenue. Its supporters argue that it is a “voluntary” tax that does not affect people’s incomes or the quality of their lives. But the facts do not support this claim.
The success of the lottery is largely due to its popularity among certain groups. It enjoys broad public approval when the proceeds are seen as benefiting a particular public good, such as education. But studies show that the objective fiscal circumstances of a state do not determine whether or when it adopts a lottery. Instead, the lottery’s popularity is largely determined by its broader social meaning and by its ability to develop a powerful constituency—convenience store operators (for whom the lottery’s advertisements are targeted); suppliers of state-licensed products; teachers (in those states that earmark lottery revenue for education); and the political leaders of a state.