Lottery is a form of gambling in which people purchase tickets for a chance to win a prize. In some cases, the prize is money, but in others it is goods or services. Various states have a lottery to raise funds for a variety of purposes. The lottery has been controversial for many reasons, including its potential for compulsive gambling and regressive effects on low-income groups. The lottery is also a source of public policy debates about whether governments should promote gambling or provide it as a service.

The practice of making decisions and determining fates by casting lots has a long history, including dozens of instances in the Bible. However, the use of lotteries for material gain is quite modern: it appears first in the West in the 16th century, although private lottery games existed much earlier. The first state-sponsored lotteries were primarily fundraising ventures, used to finance a wide range of public purposes from paving streets to building churches. The Continental Congress voted to hold a lottery in 1776, but the scheme was abandoned after only three years. After the war, the public lottery became widely accepted as a painless method of raising revenue, and it financed a number of American colleges (Harvard, Yale, King’s College, William and Mary).

In modern times, most state lotteries allow players to choose a group of numbers or have machines randomly select them for them. Players can then win prizes if enough of their chosen numbers match those randomly selected by the machine. In addition, a growing number of lotteries offer “non-cash” prizes, such as units in a subsidized housing complex or kindergarten placements at a local public school.