The lottery is an activity in which a group of individuals pays to have their names drawn for a prize. It is a form of gambling, and it is a popular way to raise funds for projects that would otherwise be difficult or impossible to finance with public money. The modern state lottery owes its roots to Benjamin Franklin, who ran a lottery to fund the creation of the militia that fought the French in 1748. Other founders including John Hancock and George Washington also ran lotteries to fund projects such as Boston’s Faneuil Hall and Virginia’s Mountain Road.

Several elements are common to all lotteries. First, there must be a mechanism for recording the identities and amounts staked by individual bettors. Often, this is done by selling numbered tickets that are deposited with the lottery organization to be reshuffled and possibly selected for the drawing. A second element is a pool of prizes. Normally, the costs of organizing and promoting the lottery are deducted from this pool, and a percentage is set aside as profits and revenues for the lottery organizers or sponsors. The remainder is available for prize winners.

The appeal of the lottery lies in its promise of instant riches. In an era of inequality and limited social mobility, this is an irresistible lure. However, the actual odds of winning do not seem to make much difference in the overall utility for most bettors. In addition, research shows that lottery play is disproportionately low among poorer individuals.