A lottery is a competition in which prizes are awarded to holders of tickets bearing specific numbers that have been drawn at random. It is usually conducted by a government or a state-licensed corporation. A bettor pays money for the privilege of participating in a lottery, either in cash or by credit card, and receives a receipt with the digits that he has chosen to mark. The organization then records the bettor’s identity, the amounts staked and the ticket(s). After the drawing, the bettor will find out whether his tickets have been drawn.

In the immediate post-World War II period, states began lotteries largely as a way to expand their social safety nets without imposing particularly onerous taxes on the middle and lower classes. But that arrangement eventually started to crumble, and it now seems clear that the vast majority of the proceeds from lottery games come from a relatively small group of regular players: people who spend $50 or $100 a week on scratch-off tickets.

These people may have quote-unquote systems for picking their numbers and choosing stores to buy them at, and they might be irrational gamblers. But they are also a vital part of the system that a handful of people run and sustain, taking in 70 to 80 percent of the money that comes in from sales and winners. The rest goes to cover the overhead costs for all the workers at lottery headquarters who design scratch-off games, record live-drawing events and keep websites up to date.