A lottery is a game of chance in which the winners are selected by a random process. In the United States, state governments offer a variety of games, from instant-win scratch-offs to games in which players must pick correct numbers. The prizes for winning are usually large sums of money, and lottery proceeds are often used for public goods. A lottery is also a popular form of gambling, encouraging people to pay a small amount for the chance of winning a big prize.

The earliest recorded lotteries are keno slips from the Chinese Han dynasty between 205 and 187 BC, but the practice has been around much longer than that. The Bible mentions the division of property by lot, and Roman emperors used to give away land and slaves via lotteries during Saturnalian celebrations. The American colonies in the 1740s raised funds for schools, churches, canals, roads and military ventures by lotteries.

Although the odds of winning a lottery are extremely low, many people still play. They do so, in part, because of the entertainment value—and even the non-monetary value—of a few minutes or hours or days spent dreaming and imagining that they’ll win someday. If these benefits outweigh the disutility of a monetary loss, then buying tickets is a rational decision for them. However, many, if not most, lotteries publish the odds of winning and other statistics on their websites, making it easy to understand the math behind the game.