Lottery is a type of gambling in which players pay an entrance fee for the chance to win a prize. The prize can be cash or goods, and the odds of winning depend on the number of tickets sold. Modern lotteries also offer prizes to the highest bidder in a game called reverse auction.
The first known lottery took place in the Low Countries in the 15th century. It was organized to raise funds for poor people and town fortifications. The oldest running lottery is the Staatsloterij in the Netherlands, founded in 1726.
In most lotteries, the organizers set a fixed amount for the prize pool; this type of lottery is commonly referred to as a fixed-prize lottery. In some lotteries, the prize money is a percentage of the total receipts. These types of lotteries are commonly referred to as percentile or percentage-prize lotteries.
Most Americans play the lottery at least once a year, but the majority of the money comes from a minority of players, who are disproportionately lower-income, less educated, nonwhite and male. These players get a lot of value from the lottery, even when they know it’s irrational and mathematically impossible to win. The reason is that the lottery gives them a couple of minutes, hours or days to dream and imagine the win—and that’s something everybody needs in a time of inequality and limited social mobility. Tessie Hutchinson, the character in Jackson’s story, is a victim of this unconscious act of rebellion.