Lottery is a way of raising money for a government, charity, or private enterprise by selling tickets with numbers on them. The winners get a prize if those numbers match those randomly drawn by a machine. The earliest known lotteries were in the 14th century, and they have been around ever since, as long as humans have wanted to give away money.

When people think of lottery, they often imagine huge jackpots—like the $1.765 billion Powerball prize in 2023. The reality is that when a lottery announces a big jackpot, it doesn’t have the full prize pool sitting in a vault, ready to be handed over to the winner. The actual sum is calculated based on what you’d receive if the current prize pool were invested in an annuity over three decades: a lump sum when you win, followed by 29 annual payments that increase by 5% every year. If you die before receiving all 29 payments, the remainder becomes part of your estate.

It is not difficult to see how the lottery encourages addictive behaviors: From the look of the tickets and their advertising, to the math behind them, everything about it is designed to keep people coming back for more. This is not a new strategy; it’s one that tobacco companies and video game manufacturers have long used to keep consumers hooked. But it isn’t a strategy normally carried out by governments.

In the United States, 44 of the 50 states run lotteries, including the infamous Powerball and Mega Millions. The six that don’t are Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Utah, and Nevada. The reasons for these state-level bans range from religious concerns to fiscal ones. The main reason, however, seems to be that these states don’t need the extra revenue.

There are also some ethical objections to the idea of a government running a gambling operation that takes advantage of vulnerable people. But in recent years, some proponents of legalized gambling have tried to dismantle these concerns by arguing that people will gamble anyway, so the government might as well take advantage of that, too. This argument has its limits—nobody wants to support the sale of heroin, either—but it does offer moral cover for people who otherwise wouldn’t approve of gambling.

In the early years of American history, it was common to use lotteries to finance public works projects and other expenses, from paving streets and building wharves to building schools and churches. Even famous figures like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were involved in the business, though Jefferson only managed a lottery to pay off his debts and Washington sponsored a lottery with prizes that included human beings. Lotteries were especially important in colonial America, where they served as an effective alternative to taxes and helped build the nation.