The first lotteries, which offered tickets for sale with a prize in the form of money, appeared in the Low Countries in the 15th century. They were originally held to raise funds for town fortifications and to help the poor. Records in towns such as Bruges, Ghent, and Utrecht indicate that they were quite popular in those times.
Currently, forty-five states and the District of Columbia have lotteries. Most lottery games are sold at authorized retailers, including convenience stores and other convenience outlets, gas stations, nonprofit organizations such as churches or fraternal organizations, restaurants and bars, bowling alleys, and newsstands. Many of these retailers also sell lottery tickets on the Internet. In general, the money paid for a ticket is pooled in a large prize fund from which costs of organizing and promoting the lottery and a small percentage go as revenues and profits to the organizers or sponsors. The rest of the pool is normally returned to bettors as prizes or accumulated winnings.
The size of the top prize for a given lottery drawing attracts potential bettors and drives up the odds that somebody will win the big one. Super-sized jackpots earn a great deal of free publicity on websites and newscasts. However, a lottery needs to be able to sustain its popularity and draw in the numbers to keep going in the long run. Otherwise, people will eventually stop playing, or, at the very least, spend less and buy fewer tickets.