Lottery is a game where players pay a small sum for a chance to win a large prize through a random drawing. It’s usually associated with gambling, but it can also be used to distribute everything from units in a subsidized housing block to kindergarten placements at a prestigious public school. It’s an intriguing form of decision-making, and it’s one that generates a lot of discussion—including arguments about its effectiveness, fairness, and ethics.

The use of lottery draws for material gain has a long history, including several instances in the Bible and the distribution of property among Roman slaves. More recently, the lottery has become an important source of revenue for state governments in America. Its popularity is often linked to the perception that its proceeds serve a “public good” (e.g., education), even though studies have shown that the objective fiscal condition of a state does not significantly influence its adoption or popularity of a lottery.

Lottery is also a lucrative enterprise for its sponsors, who spend a great deal of money advertising the opportunity to buy a dream and entice people to invest their hard-earned dollars in that dream. In turn, the prize payouts must be substantial to keep ticket sales going, and that reduces the percentage of the total proceeds available for state funding—an implicit tax, says George Loewenstein, a professor of economics and psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. Moreover, the incomprehensible odds of winning can lead people to indulge in magical thinking and superstition or simply throw reason out the window altogether.