Lottery is a form of gambling in which people purchase tickets for a chance to win a prize. The prizes may be money, goods or services. Unlike other forms of gambling, where skill may play a role, the lottery relies on chance alone to select winners. Lottery is typically organized and operated by state governments, though privately run lotteries are also common. The first recorded lotteries were held in the Low Countries in the 15th century to raise funds for town fortifications and to help the poor.

A second element of all lotteries is a drawing, a procedure for selecting the winning tickets or symbols. The tickets or counterfoils must first be thoroughly mixed by some mechanical means, such as shaking or tossing; this is designed to ensure that the selection is purely random. Many modern lotteries use computers to record ticket purchases and the corresponding numbers or symbols.

Finally, the prize money must be pooled, and the cost of organizing and promoting the lottery must be deducted from this pool. A percentage of the total pool normally goes as revenues and profits to the state or sponsor, while the remainder is available for the prizes. Lotteries may decide whether to offer a few large prizes or many smaller ones.

Lottery marketing focuses on two messages primarily. One message is to promote the experience of buying and scratching a ticket. The other is that playing the lottery has a positive impact on society because it helps raise revenue for states. However, this message obscures the regressive nature of lottery spending and ignores that the money is not spent as intended. For example, lottery players tend to be poor and they do not have good money management skills. They will typically spend their winnings on items they want rather than paying off debt or saving the money for future needs.