A lottery is a form of chance in which tokens are distributed or sold and the winning ones are selected by lot. The tokens may be of monetary value or some other commodity: The lottery is an example of a public service that uses the chance principle to distribute money or goods. The term is also applied to events in which people’s names are drawn for some prize, such as for admission into a university or a job.

The distribution of property and other valuables by lot has a long record, including several cases in the Bible. Lotteries were introduced for material gain in the late 1500s in the Low Countries, where towns offered tickets to raise funds for town fortifications and to help poor people. The first recorded public lottery offering money prizes was organized by Augustus Caesar in 1445 in Bruges for city repairs, but this type of lottery probably predates it.

Lotteries have wide popular appeal. They are easy to organize and run, and their revenues are easily earmarked for specific purposes. However, their growth often slackens, and the introduction of new games is needed to maintain or increase revenues. Despite their broad popular appeal, lotteries tend to develop extensive specific constituencies: convenience store operators (the usual vendors for lottery tickets); suppliers of equipment and services used to run the lottery; teachers in states where lottery revenues are earmarked for education; state legislators, etc.

In addition to their message that winning the lottery is fun, a major part of a lottery’s appeal is its promise of instant wealth. These messages obscure the regressive nature of the gambling and entice people to spend an enormous amount of their incomes on tickets.