Lottery, from the Latin lotto, means “fateful drawing” or “shuffling”. It refers to any gambling game or method for raising money where a large number of tickets are sold and then prizes are drawn at random. This game can be found in many forms, from those that dish out financial fortunes to those that distribute school places or units in a subsidized housing block. The most common form of lottery, however, is the one where participants pay a small amount of money for the chance to win big cash prizes.
The practice of distributing property and other things by lottery is as old as civilization itself. The Bible contains several references to the distribution of land by lot; ancient Roman emperors gave away slaves and other goods through a game called apophoreta at Saturnalian feasts and entertainments; and medieval European monarchies regularly ran public lotteries to distribute crown lands.
Modern state lotteries follow similar patterns. They create a legal monopoly for themselves (instead of licensing private firms in return for a percentage of revenues); begin operations with a modest number of relatively simple games; then, as revenues expand and pressure for more increases mount, progressively add new games to their product line. The result is that revenue growth typically expands rapidly at the beginning of a lottery’s life cycle, then levels off and may even decline. In response, most lotteries rely on heavy promotional campaigns and introduce new games to maintain and increase revenues.
Although critics often charge that state lotteries are a form of hidden tax, they enjoy broad popular support and are remarkably successful. In the United States, more than 60 percent of adults play the lottery at least once a year; and in most states, about half of adult voters have voted to approve lottery legislation in referendums. Lotteries raise a great deal of money for a variety of public projects, including schools, highways, and medical facilities.
Because state lotteries are run as businesses with the goal of maximizing revenues, their advertising necessarily focuses on persuading specific groups to spend their money on lottery tickets. The problem with this approach, as noted by Clotfelter and Cook, is that it persuades poorer people – who already struggle to make ends meet – to gamble on the hope of winning a huge prize. And, in fact, a study in the 1970s showed that those playing daily numbers games (which include scratch-off tickets) are disproportionately from low-income neighborhoods.
Lottery is also a popular form of gambling among the young. In the last 30 years, the amount of money paid out to young players in the US has quadrupled. These young players are drawn to the promise of instant wealth, which is difficult to ignore when presented with a television commercial. The popularity of these promotions is why some scholars are pushing to regulate lottery advertisements for younger people in the same way as other forms of gambling.