A lottery is a gambling game in which participants purchase tickets or tokens for a chance to win a prize. The winner is chosen by a random selection procedure, often involving the drawing of numbers. Modern lotteries are usually computerized and involve a large pool of tickets or tokens. Some are designed to be played only once, while others are played repeatedly until a winning ticket is found. Some are run by state governments, while others are private organizations or corporations. The prizes for these
The concept of distributing property or other assets by lot has a long history, with examples from several biblical texts. Roman emperors, for example, used the lottery to give away slaves and other valuable items. In Europe, lottery play was popular in the seventeenth century. Benjamin Franklin, for instance, conducted a lottery to raise funds to pay for cannons to defend Philadelphia against the British. Many of these early lotteries, however, were private rather than public.
State and provincial governments, which now administer the majority of lotteries in North America, often impose regulations to control the activities of promoters and to ensure fairness and impartiality for all participants. In addition to regulating the sale and distribution of tickets, they may impose rules on the number of prizes to be offered and their total value. They also establish the method by which the money paid for a ticket is pooled and distributed as prizes. In the case of a large number of ti