A lottery is an arrangement in which prizes are allocated by a process which relies wholly on chance. It is a form of gambling, but is permitted under the Gambling Act as it does not prevent a significant proportion of people who wish to participate from doing so.
Historically, making decisions and determining fates by the casting of lots has a long history (it appears in the Bible). The first recorded public lotteries to offer tickets for sale with prize money are from the Low Countries of the fifteenth century; towns held them to raise money for town fortifications, and to help the poor. The same system spread to the colonies, despite Protestant prohibitions on dice and card games.
Today’s lotteries are different from those of old, and the new ones have become more sophisticated. They involve purchasing tickets with numbers, either in a random drawing or through machines, and the winners receive prizes if enough of their numbers match those drawn. Some of the proceeds are used to support a variety of public uses, including education, public parks, and aid for seniors and veterans.
But the biggest change is in the way people play them. Cohen says that a growing awareness of how much could be made in the gambling business collided with state budget crises in the late twentieth century. Many states sought ways to balance their budgets without raising taxes or cutting services, and the lottery proved a popular alternative. It exploded in popularity and spread across America.
