What is a Lottery?
A lottery is a scheme for the distribution of prizes, especially money, by lot. The casting of lots for decision-making and fate determination has a long history, dating back to the biblical Book of Numbers. During the Roman Empire, public lotteries were used to raise money for town repairs and to help the poor. During colonial era America, lotteries were widely used to finance paved roads and wharves and building at Harvard and Yale. Lotteries also helped finance the Virginia Company, and Benjamin Franklin sponsored a lottery to raise funds for cannons to defend Philadelphia against the British during the American Revolution.
A state government may legalize and regulate a lottery, or it may contract with a private corporation to operate it. In either case, the resulting state lottery is a public corporation that must pay taxes, and its profits can be distributed to various state agencies. However, a lottery must remain competitive with other forms of gambling to attract gamblers and maintain its revenues.
As a result, state officials often face intense pressure to expand the lottery in order to meet demand. In an anti-tax era, these officials must balance the need for lottery revenue with the need to manage the overall public welfare. This is not an easy task, and it is common for state lotteries to become dependent on the revenues from a single type of gaming.
Initially, most state lotteries were little more than traditional raffles in which players bought tickets and waited to learn the results on a future date, weeks or even months away. Innovations in the 1970s, however, transformed the lottery industry. In addition to the introduction of instant games, which were based on chance and had much lower prize amounts, lottery innovations in the 1980s included the development of multi-state games with larger jackpots.
Today, 37 states and the District of Columbia operate a state lottery. Each has its own laws governing the operation of the lottery, and each delegates authority to an agency or commission to administer the program. These commissions select and license retailers, train employees of retailers to use lottery terminals, sell and redeem tickets, promote lottery games and help retailers comply with state law. They also pay high-tier prizes, distribute prize winnings to winners, and conduct audits to ensure that retailers and lottery staff are complying with state law.
Thousands of retailers sell lottery tickets. In addition to convenience stores and gas stations, they include restaurants, bars, charitable and fraternal organizations, service clubs, bowling alleys, and newsstands. Some of these retailers are franchises. In 2003, the National Association of State Lottery Directors estimated that there were nearly 186,000 retail outlets selling lottery tickets. Despite the wide variety of retailers, the majority of sales are made in convenience stores, which account for about three-fourths of all lottery ticket purchases. The remainder are sold at other outlets, including online. The lottery has the highest per-ticket sales among all forms of gambling in the United States.