The lottery is a form of gambling in which players pay money and receive prizes based on the chance that their numbers will match those drawn by a machine. A lottery is legal in most countries and draws large audiences. Prizes can include cash, goods, services, or land. Some states even award prizes for predicting the outcome of sporting events. In the United States, state lotteries are popular and lucrative, with Americans spending an estimated $100 billion a year on tickets.
In colonial America, lotteries helped fund many public projects, including roads, libraries, churches, colleges, and canals. Benjamin Franklin ran a lottery to raise funds for the city of Philadelphia’s defenses, and John Hancock used a lottery to build Boston’s Faneuil Hall. George Washington’s attempt to fund a road in Virginia over a mountain pass through a lottery failed to produce enough revenue, however.
In the 1800s, however, religious and moral sensibilities turned against gambling in general. The morality of gambling shifted from being something that might make you rich, but which you should do in moderation, to an activity that is not good for you. People also started to see the lottery as a get-rich-quick scheme, not just because of the improbable odds, but because it focuses your attention on instant wealth rather than on hard work, as God intends: “Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth” (Proverbs 10:4). Moreover, the purchase of lottery tickets cannot be accounted for by decision models that maximize expected value.
