People play the lottery for a variety of reasons. Some want to win the grand prize, a life-altering sum of money, while others have come to see it as their last, best or only chance for a new start. The idea of a chance to change one’s luck is as old as civilization itself. In fact, the practice of drawing lots to determine property distribution can be traced back centuries—Moses was instructed to take a census of Israel and then distribute land according to lot, while Roman emperors used lotteries to give away slaves during Saturnalian feasts.

In the early colonial United States, lotteries were a popular source of funding for both private and public endeavors. They were used to finance roads, canals, wharves, and even churches. George Washington sponsored a lottery to fund his expedition against Canada in 1768, and the colonies also used lotteries to help pay for troops to fight the French and Indian War.

State governments are increasingly embracing the concept of the “lottery” as a way to boost revenue without raising taxes or cutting public programs. It is an argument that plays well in times of economic stress, as it suggests that the lottery is a form of “painless taxation” whereby players voluntarily spend their money (as opposed to being forcefully taxed by politicians) for the public good.

But this is a misleading narrative, and it obscures the real costs of a state’s lottery. The truth is that the money that lottery games raise for state coffers is a tiny drop in the bucket of overall state revenue. And the money it brings in has a number of hidden costs, including the targeting of poorer individuals and increased opportunities for problem gambling.

Lotteries have become a common feature of American society, with people spending more than $100 billion on tickets in 2021 alone. But it’s important to understand what these games really cost us before deciding whether or not they are worth the trade-offs.

When a state adopts a lottery, it typically chooses from two main models: a “traditional” or “permutation” lottery. In a traditional lottery, the winning numbers are drawn at random by machine from a pool of possible combinations, and prizes are awarded according to how many of those numbers match. In permutation lotteries, the winning numbers are chosen by using a combination of permutations and combinations of groups of numbers. Both types of lotteries have their advantages and disadvantages, but they both require careful regulation to ensure that the money is distributed fairly and does not exacerbate social problems. This is why state lawmakers should carefully consider the implications of implementing any type of lottery before putting it into place.