A gambling game or method of raising money in which tickets are sold and a drawing is held for prizes. Generally, the winning prize is money. The word lottery comes from the Low Countries in the 1500s, where towns used it to raise funds for town fortifications and to help the poor. It also refers to something whose outcome seems or appears to be determined by chance: “Life is a lottery.”

The popularity of lotteries has varied over time and across states, but they always seem to enjoy broad public support. This support is usually based on the argument that state government revenues from lotteries benefit some specific public good, such as education.

But it’s not clear that this argument carries much weight. After all, studies show that the amount of money that a person wins in the lottery is a very small percentage of the total state revenue from it. In addition, the money that people win is often spent on more expensive goods and services than they would have otherwise bought, which further diminishes the overall public benefit.

Lottery critics point out that state lotteries are run as businesses, and their advertising necessarily focuses on persuading consumers to spend their money on them. Some have argued that this promotion of gambling has negative consequences for the poor, problem gamblers, and others, and that it is inappropriate for a state to be in the business of encouraging people to spend money they don’t have.