The lottery, which allows players to win money by selecting numbers or symbols, has a long history. Making decisions by casting lots has a biblical pedigree, and the practice spread to Europe from England in the 16th century, even though it violated Protestant church teachings against gambling. The first recorded public lotteries to award cash prizes arose in the Low Countries in the 15th century, where towns held them to raise funds for town fortifications and to help the poor.
When the late-twentieth-century tax revolt gathered momentum, states looking for solutions to budget crises that would not provoke an angry electorate discovered that a lottery seemed like the answer: it would produce revenue without raising taxes or cutting services. The New Hampshire State Lottery began the modern era of state-run lotteries in 1964, and almost all states now have them.
While the ubiquity of the lottery has broadened its reach, it also means that lottery officials are now battling an uphill battle to keep ticket sales steady. If the jackpot grows too quickly, it can depress ticket sales; if the odds are too long against winning, they will decline. To avoid these pitfalls, state lotteries have experimented with a variety of tactics.
One of the most common is to increase or decrease the number of balls in the drawing, so that the odds remain a reasonable balance between the chance of winning and how many people will play. Another is to promote the appearance of large jackpots, which draw attention and drive ticket sales. These tricks aren’t inherently bad, and lottery managers don’t pretend to be above using them.