A lottery is a form of gambling in which numbers are drawn at random to determine winners. In the United States, most state governments run a lottery to raise funds for a variety of public projects, including schools, roads, and medical research. In other countries, lotteries are more private and are used to raise money for specific causes, such as AIDS research or disaster relief. The earliest lottery-type games were found in the Low Countries in the fifteenth century, where they were used to build town fortifications and help the poor. The practice spread to the American colonies, where it helped finance many colleges, including Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, King’s College (now Columbia), and William and Mary.
In modern times, state lotteries raise billions of dollars per year. They’re usually run as a combination of online and phone-based games, with participants selecting a series of numbers or symbols. The prizes can be small, such as a free vacation, or large, such as a new home or car.
Cohen argues that the popularity of state-run lotteries started when growing awareness of all the money to be made in gambling collided with a crisis in state funding. Balancing budgets without raising taxes or cutting services was becoming impossible for many states, especially those with generous social safety nets, as they faced aging populations and high inflation. The lottery was an appealing alternative for those who feared either option. It was promoted as a “tax revolt” silver bullet, and the lottery industry quickly grew in the nineteen-sixties.