A lottery is a type of gambling where people pay a small amount of money for a chance to win a much larger sum. It is similar to raffles, except the prizes are typically cash or goods rather than services. Lotteries are often criticized as being unfair because the chances of winning are so slim. However, they do provide a way for people to raise funds for a variety of different causes.
The word “lottery” derives from the Dutch term for “fate,” and the first documented lotteries were held in the Low Countries in the fifteenth century. These early lotteries were designed to raise funds for town fortifications and poor relief. In the United States, the Continental Congress used lotteries to fund the Revolutionary War. Today, the most popular state-run lotteries offer a range of prizes, from cars and cruise ships to college scholarships and even houses.
While the odds of winning the lottery are relatively slim, many people do win, and most states profit from the proceeds. In addition to commissions for the lottery retailer and overhead for the lottery system itself, a percentage of the winnings are typically set aside as revenue and profits for the state.
The irony, Cohen argues, is that America’s growing awareness of the enormous profits to be made in the lottery business came at a time when financial security for most working Americans began to erode. The nineteen-seventies and nineteen-eighties saw an explosion in income inequality, rising health-care costs, and a decline in job security and pensions. Suddenly, for many people, the national promise that education and hard work would allow them to better their parents’ lives was no longer true.