Lottery is a form of gambling that offers participants the chance to win cash or goods. In some countries, lottery games are legal and regulated by state governments. Others are run by private companies. While the prizes for winning a lottery can be considerable, the odds of success are slim. Lotteries are often promoted as a painless tax that can raise millions of dollars for public purposes, but studies have shown that they divert funds from more productive uses such as education and infrastructure.

In most cases, government officials in charge of running a lottery are at cross-purposes with the overall public interest. Their goal is to maximize revenues, and they must spend resources advertising to persuade people to buy tickets. The resulting promotion of gambling has negative consequences for the poor and problem gamblers, and it diverts funds that could otherwise be invested in education, health care, or infrastructure projects.

In the past, state lotteries have generally followed a similar pattern: legislatures establish a monopoly for themselves; hire a public corporation to operate the lottery (as opposed to licensing private firms in return for a share of profits); begin with a modest number of relatively simple games; and then expand them to meet demand. Some states have earmarked lottery proceeds for specific programs, such as public education, but critics say that these amounts are less than what the legislature would reduce the amount it allots to the program from its general fund appropriations.