Lottery is a form of gambling where players buy tickets for a chance to win cash prizes. There is often a super-sized jackpot, which drives ticket sales and generates a lot of free publicity for the game. People also play lottery to try to get something more valuable, such as a college scholarship or a job. In the United States, state governments regulate lotteries. The term is believed to be derived from the Dutch word lot, which in turn was borrowed from Middle French loterie (often via the French word lotte), a calque on Middle English lotinge.
The history of lotteries is a long and sometimes rocky one. Early state-sponsored lotteries were widely used in Europe, notably to distribute property and slaves, and helped fund the colonization of the Americas by British settlers. They were largely banned by American Protestants, who saw them as a gateway to worse sins, but they have become a ubiquitous feature of our culture.
Typically, a state establishes a monopoly for itself by legislating it; hires an agency or public corporation to operate it (as opposed to licensing a private firm in return for a share of the profits); starts with a modest number of relatively simple games; and, under pressure from the need to boost revenues, progressively adds new ones. Unlike some other forms of gambling, lotteries are popular even when state government finances are healthy; they are seen as an alternative to raising taxes.