What is a Lottery?

Lottery is a system in which tokens are distributed or sold, the winning tokens being drawn by chance in order to distribute prizes. It is a game of chance in which the winner depends on luck or chance events—in other words, on fate: “The selection of judges is always somewhat of a lottery.” (Webster’s New World College Dictionary, 4th Edition)

In most states, the lottery is administered by state government agencies or public corporations. Oversight is often performed by the state attorney general’s office or police departments; enforcement of fraud and other abuses varies from state to state. The profits from the lottery are used to fund state programs. Unlike other commercial gambling enterprises, which compete with one another to attract patrons, most state-operated lotteries operate as government monopolies and do not allow anyone else to sell tickets.

Defenders of the lottery argue that people will gamble anyway and that governments might as well collect the revenues, thus giving states a way to balance their budgets without enraging anti-tax voters. This argument overlooks the fact that, as Cohen writes, lottery sales rise when incomes fall, unemployment and poverty rates increase, and advertising dollars flow into neighborhoods that are disproportionately poor, Black, or Latino.

Those who oppose the lottery argue that it is morally wrong to force citizens to pay for a product they do not want. But despite their moral objections, many of these same people subsidize the lottery’s operations by purchasing tickets.