The official lottery is a government-sanctioned gambling game in which people pay for the chance to win a prize. Prizes range from money to goods, services, or land. Modern lotteries usually feature a three-digit numbers game and a four-digit game similar to the popular numbers games, keno, and bingo. Some also offer instant lottery tickets. Many lotteries support public education systems.
The first official lotteries were organized in Europe in the fourteen-hundreds to raise funds for colonial ventures chartered by the crown, and they later became a common feature of British life – even in spite of Protestant proscriptions against gambling. By the seventeen-hundreds, they had reached America and helped to fund colonial endeavors and many of its earliest private businesses, including churches, schools, and some of its most prestigious universities.
By the nineteen-sixties, however, a growing awareness of the enormous profits to be made by lottery promoters collided with a crisis in state funding. Many states found themselves unable to balance their budgets without raising taxes or cutting services, both of which were deeply unpopular with voters.
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