The lottery is a form of gambling that distributes prizes to paying participants by drawing numbers or using machines that randomly select combinations. Players pay a nominal fee to enter the lottery, and winners can win big cash prizes. This type of lottery is often regulated by government agencies. It may also be a privately operated game.
The casting of lots for decision-making and fate-determining has a long history (including several instances in the Bible), but lotteries as an instrument of public revenue are of more recent origin. They became popular in colonial America, where they were used to finance everything from paving streets to building churches. Lotteries were a crucial source of funds for the Virginia Company, and George Washington even sponsored a lottery to fund cannons for Philadelphia’s defenses against the British.
Eventually, state governments took over the operation of these games; they could authorize them as they saw fit and collect revenues from sales in order to raise money for a variety of purposes. Lotteries also grew entangled with the slave trade, in ways that were unpredictable. Denmark Vesey, for example, won a lottery in South Carolina and went on to foment slavery rebellions in other states.
As lottery sales grew in the nineteenth century, they began to compete with state budgets. In a time of growing population and inflation, it became difficult to balance state budgets without raising taxes or cutting services. This was not a good option for many Americans, who were already resentful of higher taxes, especially as many states offered generous social safety nets. The result was a tax revolt that accelerated in the late nineteen-sixties.
Lottery advocates, unable to argue that a statewide lottery would float most of a state’s budget, changed tactics. Instead of arguing that a lottery would fund a whole department, they started claiming that it would cover a single line item—usually education, but occasionally elder care or public parks or aid for veterans. This narrower approach had the added benefit of rebranding the lottery as a kind of painless taxation. Voters were less likely to object to the idea of funding a program that directly benefited them.
While some of Cohen’s historical insights are interesting, he focuses chiefly on the modern lottery and its rise in popularity in America. He explains that this started when “growing awareness of all the money to be made in the lottery business collided with a crisis in state funding.” In other words, as people became aware that they had more chances than ever to win big, it was easier to justify the gamble. It is a compelling story, and it has helped to make the lottery an indispensable part of American culture.