The Official Lottery
Lottery is a state-sponsored game with prize money awarded by a random drawing of numbers. In the United States, it is one of the most popular forms of gambling, with Americans spending about $100 billion a year on tickets. It has a long and sometimes rocky history, but today the games are firmly established, and they have proven to be remarkably popular and durable.
The first state-run lotteries arose in the Low Countries in the fifteenth century, and their popularity spread to England where Queen Elizabeth I chartered the first national lottery in 1612. While Puritans considered gambling “a dishonor to God” and a door and window to worse sins, by the seventeenth century the games had become a part of everyday life in New England.
In the modern era, state lotteries have developed broad public support: 60% of adults report playing at least once a year. Lottery revenues also provide significant benefits to specific constituencies: convenience store owners (who are the primary vendors for the games); lottery suppliers (whose executives make large contributions to state political campaigns); teachers (in states where the proceeds are earmarked for education); and, in many cases, legislators and governors who have come to depend on the additional revenue from lottery profits to help fund their state’s budget.
State lotteries are regulated and overseen by the government to ensure their integrity and fairness. The state’s lottery commission, usually composed of appointed members of the legislature, establishes the rules and regulations under which the lottery operates and reviews all financial records. It also enforces laws against illegal activities and prosecutes people who violate the rules. In addition, the commission oversees a number of independent oversight bodies, including an auditor general and a consumer protection division.
Lottery laws and rules vary widely by state, but generally speaking: the state legislates a monopoly for itself; creates a state agency or public corporation to run the lottery (as opposed to licensing a private firm in return for a percentage of ticket sales); begins operations with a modest number of relatively simple games; and, due to constant pressure for additional revenues, progressively expands the range of available games.
In some cases, the lottery has expanded in a cooperative manner with neighboring states. Historically, these multi-state lotteries have offered higher jackpot prizes and increased ticket sales by making it more worthwhile for consumers to participate in the game across state lines. This has been especially true of Powerball, which was launched in 1992 and became an instant success. It now draws more than 50 million players and is a major contributor to the profits of its participating state lotteries. But there are limits to how far these collaborations can go. For example, New Hampshire, in an effort to limit interstate competition, has recently passed a law that prohibits anyone from selling tickets for a competing lottery while the state’s own lottery is in operation. A similar law is currently being debated in New York.