Lottery
A game of chance in which numbers are drawn to determine the winner of a prize. Usually, a public organization holds the lottery to raise money for a good cause, such as repairing bridges or building a library. Privately promoted lotteries are also common, with the prizes ranging from money to merchandise to real estate. The word is derived from the Dutch word lot, meaning “fate,” and French, from Old French loterie, “action of drawing lots.”
In modern times, lotteries are big business. They raise billions annually and are a major source of revenue in the United States, Europe, and other nations. They have also spawned many variations, including video poker and keno. These new games have prompted concerns that they exacerbate existing alleged negative impacts of lotteries, such as targeting poorer individuals, increasing opportunities for problem gambling, and generating addictive behavior.
When a state establishes a lottery, it develops an extensive constituency of convenience store operators (the traditional distributors for lotteries); suppliers of equipment and services (whose heavy contributions to state political campaigns are regularly reported); teachers in states with earmarked lottery revenues; and state legislators (who quickly become accustomed to the large income streams that come from the industry). Because most governments make decisions about lotteries piecemeal, with little or no general overview, they rarely take into consideration the interests of the general public. As a result, they often become dependent on revenues that they can control only intermittently and in fragmented ways.