Lottery is a form of gambling in which numbers are drawn at random for prizes. The drawing of lots for decisions or fates has a long history, including several references in the Bible. However, the lottery as a means of collecting money for public purposes is quite modern. The first state-sponsored lottery was held in Bruges, Belgium, in 1466 for municipal repairs; it was advertised as being “a noble business.” By 1776 private and public lotteries were widespread in the United States. They provided a way to collect voluntary taxes, which helped establish the country’s early colleges, including Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, William and Mary, and Union.
The state-sponsored lotteries of today are run by government agencies or public corporations, and are regulated and promoted as gambling. They generally begin with a small number of relatively simple games and, due to constant pressure to increase revenues, gradually expand their portfolios.
The majority of the proceeds from a lottery go toward prize payments, and the remainder gets divvied up between various administrative and vendor costs and toward whatever projects the state designates. This makes sense, but it also raises questions about whether it is appropriate for the state to be running a lottery—or indeed any gambling operation—in an age when many people are against gambling in general. Then there is the fact that, as with any business, lottery advertising focuses on persuading people to spend their money. As a result, the lottery’s demographics have changed dramatically over the years: men play more than women; low-income individuals play at significantly lower rates than their proportion of the population; and young people tend to play less as they grow older.