A lottery is a game in which people pay money to have numbered tickets drawn at random and to win prizes if their numbers are chosen. The word derives from the Latin word lotta, meaning “fate” or “chance.” If you describe something as a lottery, you mean that it depends entirely on chance and luck. The stock market is often described as a lottery, for example.

The practice of distributing property by lottery is known to have existed since ancient times. In the Old Testament, Moses was instructed to take a census of Israel and divide land among the people by lottery. Lotteries were a popular dinner entertainment in Roman times, and the Roman emperors used them to give away slaves and other valuable items. Francis I of France introduced the first French state-sponsored lotteries after visiting Italy, where they were very popular.

Most modern state lotteries are governed by laws that establish how much profit is made by the promoter and how much is given to prizes. The prize pool for a lottery is usually set before the first ticket is sold. In most large-scale lotteries, a single major prize is offered along with many smaller prizes.

The winners of a lottery are typically paid in one of two ways, annuity or lump sum. An annuity is a series of payments over a period of years, while a lump sum is a one-time payment. Because of the time value of money, the annuity option will generally yield a larger total amount than the advertised lump sum.