A lottery is a form of gambling in which players purchase tickets or chances to win a prize, typically money. The results are determined by a random drawing, and the odds of winning are proportionally related to the number of tickets sold. Most states regulate and run state lotteries. In addition to determining the prizes and rules of participation, the state oversees retail sales of lottery tickets, distributes high-tier prizes (such as automobiles), selects retailers, trains employees of those retailers to operate the lottery terminals that sell tickets, and ensures that retailers comply with lottery laws.

The earliest state-run lotteries were launched in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, as the nation became increasingly defined politically by an aversion to taxation. Lotteries suited this political climate by offering an alternative source of revenue for state spending projects, and they also appealed to the American public’s desire for a little bit of fun. As a result, the lotteries rapidly grew in popularity and raked in huge profits for their creators.

In the first few decades after their inception, most state lotteries resembled traditional raffles. People bought tickets for a future drawing, often weeks or months away. But innovations in the 1970s radically transformed the industry. Lottery officials introduced new games and offered smaller prizes, but with higher odds of winning. These innovations were aimed at increasing sales and reducing the time between ticket purchases, which helped maintain revenues.

As the lottery grew in popularity, many state legislators came to view it as a budgetary miracle: a way to raise large sums of money without imposing new taxes. They claimed that voters wanted the state to spend more, and if they were willing to pay for it via the lottery, voters could be spared the unpleasant subject of raising taxes.

Lottery advocates dismissed ethical objections to the practice. As Cohen explains, they argued that people would gamble anyway; so why not let the state take the profits and use them for public purposes? While that argument has limits, it provided moral cover for those who approved of the lottery.

But the growth of the lottery has also raised fundamental questions about its role in state government. It is a business, after all, and its purpose is to maximize profits by promoting gambling. To do so, it must entice people to spend their hard-earned incomes on a chance to win a prize. And that effort necessarily involves encouraging poor people to participate in a game with potentially negative consequences for them and their families.

Those consequences have been aggravated by the fact that state-run lotteries are often run at cross-purposes with the public interest. As a result, the promotion of gambling may be creating problems that were not present before the lottery’s emergence. In addition, because the state is in competition with private lottery firms, it has a financial incentive to promote gambling as a means of increasing its own revenues.