A lottery is a game in which people pay money and have a chance to win a prize. It can be played by individuals or groups. It is often used to raise funds for charitable causes or public services. Almost all state lotteries offer some kind of prize, and the proceeds from these are shared among winners and designated beneficiaries. Some states allocate lottery profits in different ways; for example, New York gives $30 billion in education revenue to its citizens since it began its lottery in 1967.
In the United States, people spent more than $100 billion on lottery tickets in 2021. State officials promote the games as a way to boost state revenues, which they argue benefit everything from schools to roads. But how significant that revenue is and whether it’s worth the cost to taxpayers—including those who lose their ticket stubs—is debatable.
Almost any competition in which people pay to enter and their names are drawn, even if later rounds require some degree of skill, is a lottery. For instance, a beauty contest or athletic contest that requires paying participants to compete in a series of qualifying and elimination rounds would be considered a lottery.
The word lottery is derived from the Dutch noun lot, meaning “fate.” It was originally a system of allocating land or other assets by drawing lots. Lotteries were widely used in colonial America to finance private and public projects. For example, George Washington ran a lottery to finance the Mountain Road in Virginia and Benjamin Franklin supported one to finance the construction of cannons for the Revolutionary War.