A lottery is a gambling game where people buy tickets with numbers. When the numbers are drawn, those who have the winning numbers win a prize. Lotteries have a long history, and are a popular way to raise money for many purposes.

In a lottery, a pool of prizes is created from the money paid by players, typically after administrative expenses and profits for the promoter have been deducted. The amount of the pool is determined by the size of the jackpot and how many tickets are sold. If no winner is found in a drawing, the prize money rolls over to the next drawing. This limits the maximum value of the jackpot but increases the odds of winning.

Lotteries are regulated by state governments. The overwhelming majority of states have lotteries. In most cases, a government agency or public corporation manages the lotteries (as opposed to licensing a private firm in return for a share of the profits). Each lottery begins operations with a small number of relatively simple games and, as demand grows, progressively expands its size and complexity.

Lotteries are run as businesses with a single goal of increasing revenues. To do this, they must persuade the general public to spend their money on tickets. They do this by promoting two messages primarily. The first is that playing the lottery is fun and the experience of scratching a ticket is rewarding. The other message is that it’s a great way to get rich, and it’s accompanied by the implicit belief that if you play a lot, you will be able to make good choices about how to use your money in the future.