Lottery is an arrangement by which prizes are allocated to a class of individuals in accordance with a process that depends wholly on chance. The prize money may be anything from nothing at all to a substantial amount of cash or property. Lotteries are most often state-sponsored but privately organized lotteries are also common. Lottery games usually involve the drawing of numbers for a prize, with the more numbers that match the winning number the higher the reward.

The term lottery is derived from the Latin word sortilegium, meaning “casting of lots”. The first recorded public lotteries were held in the Low Countries in the 15th century to raise funds for town fortifications and poor relief. In colonial America, public lotteries helped finance the foundation of Harvard, Yale, Columbia, King’s College (now Columbia University), and many other colleges, as well as roads, canals, and wharves. Benjamin Franklin even attempted to hold a private lottery to raise funds for cannons to defend Philadelphia during the American Revolution, but the effort was unsuccessful.

While the defenders of the lottery argue that it provides a source of “painless” revenue, critics point out that the lottery promotes addictive gambling behavior, is a major regressive tax on lower-income groups, and creates other social problems. Despite these concerns, state-sponsored lotteries have proven to be extremely popular: In the United States, 60% of adults report playing at least once a year.