Lottery is a type of gambling in which prizes are assigned to participants by chance. Prizes are often cash or goods and services, such as vehicles, but can also be vacations or a sports team. Most states have a lottery and most of them regulate it in some way. A lottery is typically run by a government agency, but private firms can also organize and operate it. Lottery has become a popular fundraising method for public projects in the United States, and is widely used in other countries.

Many governments have adopted lotteries because they are inexpensive to organize and very popular. They tend to win broad support from the general public, and remain popular even in periods of economic stress, when state governments may be trying to impose tax increases or cut public programs. In fact, as one economist points out, the relative popularity of a lottery to other forms of gambling is usually independent of whether a state’s fiscal condition is good or bad.

However, it has been observed that lottery play is regressive; people in lower income neighborhoods participate in lotteries at significantly less than their share of the population. In addition, studies show that men play more than women; blacks and Hispanics play more than whites; and the young play less than the middle age range. Nevertheless, most state lottery officials argue that their revenues are not dependent on specific socio-economic groups, and that the overall benefits outweigh the negative social effects.