A lottery is a gambling game in which people pay a small amount of money for a chance to win a large sum of money. Lotteries are a popular form of gambling in the United States and other countries. They are often organized so that a portion of the profits is donated to good causes. The prizes may be cash or goods. In the United States, state-run lotteries are very popular. People spend upwards of $100 billion on lottery tickets every year. States promote them as a way to raise revenue for schools and other public services. But how meaningful that revenue is in broader state budgets, and whether it’s worth the trade-off to people who lose money on them, is debatable.
Although making decisions and determining fates by casting lots has a long history in human culture (including multiple instances in the Bible), public lotteries are relatively recent. They began in Europe in the 1500s, with towns attempting to raise funds for municipal repairs and other purposes. They became popular in the 1600s, and in the 17th century Louis XIV used them to finance his court.
In colonial America lotteries were common as a means to fund projects such as paving streets, constructing wharves, and building churches. They were also a popular method of collecting “voluntary taxes” in support of the colonies’ war efforts and to establish colleges such as Harvard, Yale, and King’s College (now Columbia). Benjamin Franklin even sponsored a lottery to raise funds for cannons for Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War.