A gambling game or method of raising money, as for some public charitable purpose, in which a large number of tickets are sold and a drawing is held for certain prizes. Lottery has a long history and has proven remarkably popular, especially in the immediate post-World War II period when states were expanding their social safety nets and needed to generate substantial new revenues without particularly onerous taxes on middle class workers.

States enact laws regulating lottery and delegate a specific division to administer it. The responsibilities of these lottery offices are wide-ranging and include licensing retailers, training employees of these stores to sell and redeem tickets, paying high-tier prizes to players, and ensuring that all state and federal laws regarding gambling are followed.

Nevertheless, lottery is not an ideal system for distributing prizes. Its basic principle is that prizes are allocated by chance and thus cannot reasonably be expected to produce an even distribution of the wealth of participants. There is also a risk of corruption, and lottery officials are not always able to prevent the issuance of fraudulent tickets or to recover prizes from dishonest winners.

A further problem is that, because of the emphasis on maximizing revenues, lottery advertising necessarily has to focus on persuading people to spend their hard-earned income on the chance of winning. This raises serious questions about whether it is appropriate for government at any level to manage an activity from which it profits, particularly when it leads to negative consequences for the poor and problem gamblers.