A lottery is a financial game of chance where people buy tickets for a small price in order to have a chance of winning a huge sum of money, sometimes running into millions. Lotteries are similar to gambling and are often run by governments to raise money for a variety of public purposes, such as school construction or subsidized housing.

Lotteries are a popular form of public entertainment. They have been around for a long time, and they are an effective way of raising funds for public projects.

They are also a great source of revenue for state governments. In 2006, the states earned $17.1 billion in revenues from their lotteries.

In contrast to the widespread belief that lotteries are a form of hidden tax, they are actually a highly profitable business for the government. In fact, many states depend on their lottery revenues to finance their budgets.

The evolution of state lottery policies has typically followed a pattern: the legislature legislates a monopoly, establishes an agency or public corporation to run the lottery, and begins operations with a modest number of relatively simple games. Then, the government faces pressure to increase the size and complexity of the lottery.

The result is a proliferation of games, with progressively lower prize amounts, increasingly complex odds, and more frequent drawing times. Revenues tend to expand dramatically upon the introduction of the lottery, but then level off and begin to decline. As a result, the government must continually introduce new games to keep up with demand.