A lottery is a game of chance in which a prize (normally money) is awarded to players who purchase tickets. The chances of winning are usually based on the number of tickets sold and the distribution of prizes among different segments of the ticket-buying population. Although making decisions and determining fates by casting lots has a long history in human culture (there are even references to lotteries in the Bible), the use of lottery to raise funds for material gain is more recent, dating only to the late 19th century. In the US, state-sponsored lotteries are legal in forty-four states and the District of Columbia, with a total annual turnover of approximately $20 billion.
The modern lottery consists of three essential elements: a state-run monopoly, which administers the games; a collection and pooling mechanism, which collects and pools stakes paid for tickets; and a prize pool. Normally, a percentage of the money collected is deducted for administrative costs and profit to the lottery operator; the remainder goes to winners. Generally speaking, lotteries also impose a minimum price per ticket.
People buy tickets for a variety of reasons, but the biggest driver is a desire to gain an increased expected utility from the transaction. For a given individual, the disutility of the monetary loss involved in purchasing a ticket may be outweighed by the combined utility of a monetary win and the entertainment value of participating in a lottery.
Lottery advocates cite these psychological factors to dismiss ethical objections to the games. The argument goes that, since gamblers are going to gamble anyway, the government might as well reap the profits—and the resulting revenues could pay for public goods that would otherwise be unavailable.
This rationalist justification has some truth, but it obscures the underlying motivations and structures that give rise to lotteries. For example, many states first legislate a monopoly; establish a government agency or public corporation to run the games; start with a small number of relatively simple lotteries; and then progressively expand their offerings as pressure mounts for additional profits.
Furthermore, a key factor in lottery success is the size of the prizes—and a way to inflate those prizes is by raising the odds of winning. While Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton both understood that one-in-three million odds were essentially the same as one-in-sixty million, the average lottery player seems to have trouble distinguishing those numbers.
Finally, there’s the way in which lotteries are advertised and promoted. As Cohen points out, the marketing of a lottery often involves presenting a misleading picture of the likelihood of winning. It’s a subtle strategy, but it’s one that is largely successful. After all, when you see a billboard for a multi-million dollar jackpot, what can you do but buy a ticket? The underlying reality is, however, that winning the lottery is unlikely—nevermind the advertised odds. But it doesn’t stop a lot of people from buying in. In fact, people who make more than fifty thousand dollars a year spend on average about one percent of their incomes on lottery tickets; those who make less than thirty thousand dollars spend thirteen percent.