Lottery is a process of awarding prizes by random selection, typically through a drawing. Those prizes may be cash or goods or services. The process is most commonly associated with a state or national lottery, but it can also be used to award placement in a team among equally qualified candidates, employment in a corporation, and so on.
Historically, state lotteries have evolved along remarkably similar paths: The government legislates a monopoly; establishes a public agency or corporation to run the lottery (as opposed to licensing a private firm in return for a share of the profits); begins operations with a modest number of relatively simple games; and, due to constant pressure for additional revenues, progressively expands the lottery by adding new games. This expansion of the lottery has been driven by both a desire to keep the public interested in the game and the need to maintain or increase revenue, as lottery ticket sales tend to decline over time.
In the end, it is important to remember that the purchase of a lottery ticket is an investment in a game with a low expected payoff, even if people do not realize it. As such, it cannot be accounted for by decision models that are based on expected value maximization. Instead, the decision to buy a lottery ticket may be considered a rational choice if entertainment value and other non-monetary values are factored into the utility function.
Despite the low odds, people do purchase lottery tickets. The reason is that people like to gamble, and the lottery offers a tantalizing promise of instant riches. This is especially true in an era of stagnant incomes and limited social mobility, when lottery advertisements often emphasize the size of the jackpots.