A lottery is a game in which tickets are drawn for prizes. This can be a gambling game in which participants pay money for the chance to win, or it may involve any scheme in which the distribution of prizes is determined by chance. Examples include a drawing for units in a subsidized housing project, kindergarten placements at a public school, or the selection of jurors by random procedure. The word lottery is related to the Latin verb lottere, meaning “to throw” or “send forth”. Lotteries are widely used in government and business, where they serve as a low-cost alternative to more costly methods for selecting people for jobs and for military conscription.
In his novel The Lottery, John Dos Passos wrote of a village lottery that was “so arranged that the entire thing could be finished in a couple of hours, from beginning to end, and still allow a decent time for the villagers to get back home for noon supper” (DiYanni, 1957). A similar sense of linearity is found in the passage of the same name in Dickens’s Bleak House. Unlike the more sophisticated public lotteries of today, which use computerized processes to select winners, medieval lotteries were held by hand with a human dealer. The prize was usually money, but in some cases it was goods such as dinnerware. The oldest known state-sponsored lottery in Europe was established in the Low Countries during the fifteenth century, raising funds for town fortifications and charity for the poor. Private lotteries, which did not require payment of any consideration, were also common. In 1776 the Continental Congress voted to establish a national lottery, but this was ultimately unsuccessful.
The popularity of the modern financial lottery is partly explained by its low cost, high chances of winning, and perceived meritocratic appeal. In addition, many people simply like to gamble. Lottery advertising aims to keep players coming back, and it does so by highlighting large jackpots and by emphasizing the number of previous winners. In this way, it operates much like the marketing tactics of tobacco companies or video-game manufacturers.
Another reason for the longevity of the lottery is that it responds to economic fluctuations. Lottery sales increase during times of rising unemployment and poverty rates, and they decline as those same trends reverse. The defenders of the lottery argue that its players are either stupid or enjoy playing, but the evidence shows that most of them are highly aware of how unlikely they are to win. Moreover, the same demographics that play the lottery are the ones most heavily exposed to promotional material. In other words, the lottery is a tool for maintaining public services without having to hike taxes, which would likely meet with fierce resistance at the polls. Despite their claims that they don’t want to burden future generations with debt, states aren’t above leveraging the lottery for this purpose. This is a particularly effective strategy in places with weaker social safety nets and lower levels of income inequality.