Lottery is a state-sanctioned game of chance in which people purchase tickets for the opportunity to win a prize. The prizes are typically cash but may include items of lesser value. The term lottery is derived from the Middle Dutch word loterij, which may be a calque of the Old French word loterie (or a variant). The first recorded lotteries to offer tickets for sale with cash prizes were held in the Low Countries in the 15th century to raise funds for town walls and fortifications.
Lotteries are widely popular with people of all ages, and in the United States more than 60 percent of adults play. They generate huge profits for the states, but they also have significant negative impacts on some groups of individuals. The most serious problems are with compulsive gamblers and the regressive impact on lower-income populations.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as the new nation was building its financial, banking, and taxation systems, public lotteries were popular because they provided an efficient mechanism for raising money quickly. The early American leaders Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin favored them, and the Continental Congress voted to hold a lottery in 1776. Later, lotteries were used to help build the first American colleges.
