Lottery is a system for distributing something, usually money or prizes, among a group of people by chance. Typically, lottery participants purchase chances, called tickets, and the winnings are drawn from a pool composed of all or most of the possible permutations of the numbers or symbols on the tickets (see Figure below). Lottery may also refer to:
The word lottery is thought to come from Middle Dutch loterie, or perhaps a calque on the French loterie, both meaning “drawing lots.” The first known public lotteries in Europe were held in the Low Countries in the 17th century to raise money for town fortifications and to help the poor. Lotteries grew very popular in colonial America, and were often used as a painless way to collect taxes. They helped fund colleges, canals, bridges, roads, and a variety of public uses. The Continental Congress authorized many lotteries to raise money for the American Revolution, and Benjamin Franklin’s Philadelphia Lottery of 1744 raised enough funds to buy cannons for the city’s defense. George Washington participated in several lotteries to finance his Mountain Road Lottery in 1768, and the rare tickets bearing his signature have become collector items.
In the US, lotteries are generally run by state governments. Some are purely random, while others offer multiple ways to win, such as selecting numbers or choosing from a set of products. A common type of lottery involves picking the correct six numbers from a set of balls, with each number numbered from 1 to 50 (some games use more or less than 50). The odds of winning vary, but are generally quite low. Some people try to increase their odds by using various strategies.