The lottery is a form of gambling that involves the drawing of numbers for a prize. The term is derived from the Dutch word lot, meaning fate or fortune; it may be a calque on Middle French loterie, which itself is a calque on Middle Dutch lotinge “action of drawing lots” (Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition). In modern usage, the lottery refers to state-sponsored games that award large cash prizes. It is a major source of revenue for many governments and an important factor in the development of modern democracies.
The use of lottery as a tool for making decisions and determining fates has a long record in human history, including several instances in the Bible, although the first lotteries to award money for material gain were probably organized in the Low Countries in the 15th century. The early American colonies used them to fund public works, including roads, libraries, churches, colleges, canals, and bridges; and in 1740 Benjamin Franklin held a lottery to finance cannons for the defense of Philadelphia.
Lottery revenues grew rapidly after World War II, enabling states to expand their social safety nets without the kind of onerous taxes that might be imposed on the middle and working classes. But the prosperity of the nineteen-sixties began to fade, and by the seventies inflation and the cost of the Vietnam War made it impossible for many states to balance their budgets without raising taxes or cutting services.