In a lottery, a number is chosen at random. The process is used for a variety of purposes, such as filling vacancies in sports teams among equally competing players or placing students into certain schools and universities. The origins of lotteries go back centuries. The Old Testament instructed Moses to take a census of Israel and divide the land by lot, while Roman emperors used lotteries to give away property and slaves.

Lottery advertising tries to make the experience of buying a ticket fun. But it also conceals the fact that it’s a form of gambling and that the odds are long for people who play. It also obscures the regressive nature of the program and the fact that many low-income people spend a significant portion of their incomes on tickets.

Lotteries evolved from the need to raise money for various public projects. They’ve been around for centuries, with keno slips dating back to the Chinese Han dynasty (205–187 BC). The modern state lottery began in the 1770s when Benjamin Franklin held a lottery to fund cannons to defend Philadelphia from the British. The lottery has largely evolved through piecemeal, incremental changes. Rather than a holistic policy, lottery officials make decisions on an ongoing basis with little overall overview or review. As a result, the lottery has become a classic example of fragmented authority and incoherent public policy.