Lottery | definition of Lottery by Practical English Usage

A game or an arrangement in which tokens are distributed or sold, the winners to be selected by chance. Often sponsored by states or organizations as a means of raising funds.

The word lottery is also used to describe a situation or result in which luck plays an important role: ‘She won the job through a lottery.’

In the early 20th century, state lotteries were the major source of income for many states, particularly those that did not have large social safety nets. They were regarded as a way to provide extra services without having to raise taxes on the middle and working classes.

Most state lotteries started as traditional raffles, with the public buying tickets in advance of a future drawing. But innovations in the 1970s and 1980s changed the industry dramatically, with new games such as scratch-off tickets allowing the lottery to keep revenues up without having to draw for several weeks or months at a time.

Despite the fact that the lion’s share of lottery revenues comes from the most wealthy players, the overall player base is relatively broad and diverse. The majority of people who buy a ticket at least once a year do so because they plain old like to gamble, and that’s fine. But obscuring that reality by treating the lottery as a game obscures how much of a regressive tax it is on poorer Americans.