A lottery is a method of raising money by selling tickets with numbers on them, and holding a drawing for prizes. Lottery laws differ by state, and are usually regulated by a special division within the gaming commission or other agency. These departments license and select retailers, train employees of retailers to operate lottery terminals, pay winners and ensure that retailers and players comply with state law. They may also promote the lottery, and offer high-tier prizes to players.
Lottery prizes often range from cash to goods, but the odds of winning are very long. Nevertheless, people love to dream about winning huge sums of money. That desire to believe in a lucky break works in the lottery’s favor, and explains why jackpots have been known to grow to apparently newsworthy amounts after a period of slow decline.
In the colonial era, lotteries played an important role in financing both private and public projects, including building colleges, canals, roads, ports and churches. In 1776, Benjamin Franklin sponsored a lottery to raise funds for cannons to defend Philadelphia against the British, and Thomas Jefferson tried his hand at a private lottery to alleviate his crushing debts.
State governments promoted the idea of a national lottery as a source of “painless revenue” – people would voluntarily spend their money on a game that could help fund a wide array of services without burdening working families or the poor with higher taxes. This arrangement allowed states to expand their social safety nets after World War II, and has persisted in many cases until recently, when the costs of government began to outpace available revenue.