A lottery is an arrangement in which one or more prizes are allocated by a process that relies wholly on chance. Although many governments outlaw the practice, others endorse it to a degree and organize state or national lotteries. Lotteries typically involve people buying tickets for a drawing in which they may win a prize ranging from cash to goods. Some states also offer keno and video poker games. Lotteries are widely popular, and most Americans play them at least occasionally.

The modern lottery originated in the Low Countries around the 15th century, when towns used them to raise money for town fortifications and the poor. By the 1740s, lotteries were common in colonial America and helped finance roads, libraries, churches, colleges, canals, and bridges. In the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin held a lottery to finance the purchase of cannons for Philadelphia’s defense against the British.

Lottery revenues expand dramatically soon after they begin, and then level off or even decline. This has led to a constant search for new games to maintain or increase revenue, which is why most lotteries sell instant-win scratch-off tickets and other games with relatively low prize amounts and high odds of winning.

Lottery players tend to be disproportionately lower-income, less educated, and nonwhite. They are also more likely to be men, and the older they are, the less likely they are to play. This demographic trend undermines the arguments of lottery proponents that they offer a painless source of revenue, since people voluntarily spend their own money instead of being taxed.