Lottery is a form of gambling in which people win money by choosing numbers or symbols that are drawn. State governments sponsor and oversee lotteries, which have gained popularity in recent decades as a way to raise money for public purposes. In the United States, 37 states and the District of Columbia operate lottery games.

Lotteries have a long history and have been used in a variety of ways. They were widely used in colonial America to fund such projects as paving streets and building wharves, and were the primary method of raising funds for the Continental Congress in 1776. Lotteries also financed buildings at Harvard, Yale and other American colleges. Benjamin Franklin sponsored a lottery to supply cannons for the defense of Philadelphia, and Thomas Jefferson attempted to hold one to reduce his crushing debts before his death.

The underlying argument for the adoption of lotteries is that they offer state governments a source of “painless” revenue, since players are voluntarily spending their money rather than being taxed. Nevertheless, there are many problems associated with this approach.

The first is that lottery revenues tend to increase dramatically soon after they are introduced, but then level off or even decline. This has led to the constant introduction of new games in an attempt to maintain or increase revenues. Second, earmarking lottery proceeds for specific programs (such as public education) is often misleading. In fact, the program that receives the earmark simply reduces the amount of money that would otherwise be allotted to it from the general fund, so it is no different than if the legislature had cut an equivalent amount from another state budget item.