Lottery is a game of chance in which people purchase tickets for a drawing that distributes prizes based on randomly drawn numbers. Prizes may be money, goods, or services. People have used lottery-like games to make decisions and determine fates for a long time, including several instances in the Bible. The first recorded public lottery to award material prizes was held during the reign of Augustus Caesar for municipal repairs in Rome, and the word lotteries is thought to have originated from a Middle Dutch phrase, loterij, meaning “action of drawing lots.”

The drawback is that a ticket costs more than the expected gain, as shown by lottery mathematics. However, people still buy tickets, presumably because they find the entertainment value or the fantasy of becoming wealthy to be worth the cost. If this is incorporated into their decision models as a benefit, lottery play can be considered rational under expected utility maximization.

Early state lotteries were often used to finance public works projects, such as paving roads or building churches. George Washington ran a lottery in 1768 to raise funds for construction of the Mountain Road across Virginia, and Benjamin Franklin promoted one to fund the rebuilding of Faneuil Hall in Boston. The main argument in favor of state-sponsored lotteries has been that they raise revenue without the need for increased taxes or cuts to other programs. However, studies show that the subjective fiscal conditions of a state do not have much bearing on whether or when a lottery gains popular support.