A lottery is a game in which numbers are drawn to determine who wins prizes. It can be used to award a wide variety of things, from kindergarten admission at a reputable school to units in a subsidized housing block to a vaccine for a new virus. Two types of lotteries are most familiar to people: those that dish out cash prizes to paying participants and those that happen in sports. The NBA holds a lottery every year to decide which team gets the first opportunity to pick a player from college.

State-sponsored lotteries have become a major source of government revenue, and they have developed broad popular support. They are generally not viewed as a tax, in part because the winnings are paid out in lump sums over several years rather than in equal annual installments (which would be seen as an implicit increase in taxes). State lotteries also develop large and specific constituencies such as convenience store owners; suppliers of lottery equipment (heavy contributions by these businesses to state political campaigns are widely reported); teachers (in states in which lotteries raise funds for education); state legislators (who quickly grow accustomed to a steady flow of tax revenues); and players themselves (who regularly spend $50 to $100 a week on tickets).

But even though many people play the lottery for the money, it isn’t the main reason they do so. Rather, the real reason is that people plain old like to gamble. Lotteries appeal to this inextricable human impulse, and they know it. They entice people to participate by dangling the promise of instant riches in an age of inequality and limited social mobility.