A lottery is a game of chance in which players pay a small amount of money to receive a prize if their numbers match those randomly selected by machines. Most lotteries offer a single large prize and multiple smaller prizes.

People use the word “lottery” to mean any number of things, from a drawing for units in a subsidized housing project to kindergarten placements at a public school. But the most common sense of the word is one in which people participate for a shot at a big cash prize.

Lottery is a form of gambling, and state governments generally regulate it and run it as a monopoly. They often establish a separate public corporation to run the lottery; start out with a small number of relatively simple games; and, under constant pressure to increase revenues, progressively expand the size and complexity of their offerings.

In the United States, most state governments run lotteries to raise money for a variety of purposes. Some of the money is used to award prizes, including cash and goods. Others are set aside to fund specific programs, such as education. Critics charge that, by “earmarking” lottery proceeds for a particular program, legislators can reduce the appropriations they would otherwise have to allot from the general fund.

As the popularity of the lottery has grown, debate and criticism have shifted from the general desirability of the game to the particular features of its operations. For example, critics have pointed to the negative social consequences of compulsive gambling and the regressive impact on lower-income groups.