Lottery
A game in which numbers or symbols are drawn at random and prizes awarded to whoever has the winning combination. Often the winning prize is cash, but other goods and services may also be offered. The odds of winning a lottery are often very low, and even the winners find that winning a large sum of money is not easy.
Lottery is a popular form of gambling, and its popularity in the United States has been growing rapidly. In 2004, Lottery generated over $9 billion in revenue from ticket sales. Unlike some other forms of gambling, the money from Lottery is not collected by a centralized government agency and is not used to pay off debt or finance state operations.
The term lottery was first used in the English language in 1725. The name derives from the Dutch noun lot meaning “fate.” People have used lotteries to raise money for a variety of purposes, including wars, building projects, and charitable works. Benjamin Franklin organized a lottery to buy cannons for the defense of Philadelphia, and George Washington held a lottery to raise money to build his mountain road.
Today, most state and national lotteries operate by selling tickets to the public and then awarding prizes based on the number of matching numbers or symbols in a drawing. The drawing may be conducted by computer, and the computers are programmed to ensure that the process is fair and unbiased. In some lotteries, the prize is a fixed amount of money or goods; in others, it is a percentage of receipts.