A lottery is a scheme for distributing prizes, especially money, by chance. Lotteries are legalized forms of gambling and are usually governed by state governments. They can also raise funds for public purposes, such as building the British Museum or repairing bridges. In some cases, they are used to distribute housing units or kindergarten placements.

There are many different types of lottery, but most involve selecting a winner or small group of winners from among a large number of applicants. In some cases, the winner or winners are chosen at random by a computer program. In other cases, the winners are chosen by a committee of judges or volunteers. The term lottery is also often used to refer to other types of chance-based competitions, such as sporting events or political elections.

The first recorded lotteries were held in the Low Countries in the 15th century, and were used to raise money for town fortifications and the poor. The word “lottery” may have come from the Dutch noun lot, meaning fate or destiny, and the English noun lottery comes from the Middle Dutch noun loterij “action of drawing lots”.

In colonial America, lotteries were used to finance private and public ventures. They helped to build schools, libraries, canals, roads, bridges, and the University of Pennsylvania. They were also a major source of funding for military expeditions during the French and Indian Wars.

Today, most states hold a state lottery or a multistate lotto. Players purchase tickets, and a small percentage of the ticket sales is awarded as prize money. The remainder is used for operating costs and administrative expenses.

People who play the lottery should think twice about the money they spend on tickets. There’s an opportunity cost to spending that money on something else, such as paying off credit card debt or building an emergency savings account. In addition, the money spent on lotteries is regressive – it is disproportionately used by lower-income people.

Lotteries are not unique in promoting vices, but it is worth considering whether government should be in the business of encouraging gambling. While it’s true that gambling can become addictive, it is not nearly as harmful as alcohol or tobacco, two other vices that governments promote to raise revenue. In fact, state lotteries generate only a small share of state budget revenues. This makes it hard to justify continuing to promote them.