In the lottery, people buy tickets and hope to win prizes by matching numbers. The more numbers a person matches, the bigger the prize. Lotteries are popular, with Americans spending about $100 billion a year on them. But despite their popularity, they are also controversial. The main reasons for the controversy have to do with the social versus the economic aspects of gambling.

The earliest evidence of lottery-like games comes from keno slips in ancient China from the Han dynasty (205–187 BC). In the modern era, lotteries were introduced to the United States by English colonists in the 17th century. Despite Puritan objections that gambling was “a dishonor to God” and an opening to worse sins, they were quickly adopted by American society and continue to flourish.

Most states have a state-run lottery, with a government agency or public corporation running it. They typically start with a modest number of relatively simple games, and then, due to pressures for additional revenues, progressively expand the number of games and the size of the prizes. In the long run, however, this expansion can become a self-defeating spiral, as more money spent on tickets reduces odds of winning.

Moreover, state governments are inherently dependent on profits from the lottery, and this makes them vulnerable to public criticism in anti-tax times. As a result, the debate over whether or not to operate a lottery frequently shifts from its general desirability to specific features of its operation, including issues such as the problem of compulsive gambling and alleged regressive effects on low-income groups.