Lottery is a form of gambling in which numbers are drawn for a prize. It is a common way to raise money for state governments without raising taxes, though many people have been abused by the system.

In the United States, state-run lotteries are popular and widely available. They can take many forms, from instant-win scratch-off games to daily lotteries in which players pick the right numbers. Some lotteries are open to all, while others are restricted to specific groups or states. In either case, the winning amount varies according to the rules of the lottery.

Some numbers appear to come up more often than others, but this is a matter of random chance. While the lottery is a game of chance, committed gamblers can make smart decisions by studying the odds and using proven strategies.

From 1964 to 2019, public lotteries raised a total of $502 billion. But when viewed in the context of overall state revenue, this sum is much smaller. Lottery profits benefit wealthy and middle-class families, not low-income households.

The word lottery dates to the 15th century, when a variety of towns in the Low Countries began holding lotteries to raise money for town fortifications and the poor. Benjamin Franklin organized a lottery in 1768 to raise funds for cannons for the defense of Philadelphia, and George Washington managed a lottery to sell land and slaves in Virginia in 1769.

The word lottery is related to the Latin word for “casting of lots,” and also to Old English and Old Frisian hlot and hlota, which mean the same. The term was adopted by Romanic languages, including French and Spanish, and into English as well, probably as a calque from Middle Dutch loterie, a loan-word of Germanic origin, which may be related to lot (n.) and Old French loterie, a loan-word from Frankish.