Lottery is a method for allocating prizes to individuals or groups by drawing lots. While the casting of lots to make decisions and determine fates has a long history (including several instances in the Bible), public lotteries for material gain are relatively new, and their use is controversial.

Most states authorize their lotteries to raise money for state programs. Although these proceeds have helped the poor, lottery advocates argue that the overall contribution is minimal and that state governments need substantial additional revenue to expand their range of services. They also claim that lotteries reduce taxes on lower-income people.

The arguments for and against lotteries are remarkably similar in every state where they are legalized: The state legislature legislates a monopoly for itself; establishes a state agency or public corporation to manage the lottery (as opposed to licensing a private firm); begins operations with a modest number of relatively simple games; and, under pressure from constant demand, progressively expands the program in size and complexity.

The most basic reason that many people play the lottery is that they just plain like to gamble. The lottery is a particularly slick way to do it, because it offers the promise of instant riches in an age of inequality and limited social mobility. Lotteries are also a major vehicle for peddling the lie that money can solve life’s problems, an idea that is contradicted by God’s commandments not to covet “your neighbor’s house, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that is his.” (Exodus 20:17; see Ecclesiastes 5:10).