Lottery is a form of gambling in which people buy tickets and win prizes by matching numbers or other symbols on their ticket with those drawn in a random process. Lotteries are widespread around the world and a major source of government revenue in many states. They are controversial in some countries, but they remain popular and are growing.

In the United States, state governments have adopted lottery games as a way to raise “painless” revenue without increasing taxes or cutting services. State legislators and voters alike have become accustomed to a steady flow of funds that does not require any major change in public policy.

But the lottery’s popularity has not made it immune to criticism, particularly in the context of its effects on lower-income communities. Lotteries are regressive, and the bottom quintile of households spends far more on lottery tickets than their proportion of the population should.

The word “lottery” is most likely derived from the Middle Dutch noun lot (“fate”) or the Latin verb lutor (“fate”). The first modern lotteries were a series of events that sold tickets for goods and services such as town fortifications, church repairs, and help for the poor.

Most state lotteries today offer multiple products, including keno and video poker. Some also provide scratch-off tickets, which are a form of instantaneous lottery, in which players select a series of numbers or symbols and hope that they match those randomly selected by a machine. The winning numbers are announced periodically, and prizes range from a car or a vacation to thousands of dollars in cash.