A lottery is a process whereby people pay for the chance to win a prize, which could be money or any other good. Generally, prizes are awarded by a random drawing of numbers. Historically, lotteries were used to raise money for some state or charitable purpose; modern examples include a lottery for units in a subsidized housing block or kindergarten placements at a reputable public school. The stock market is also a kind of lottery, in that participants buy and sell stocks at a price determined by chance.

The earliest recorded lotteries involved the distribution of articles of unequal value, such as dinnerware. These were popular during the Roman Empire, but they were not organized by the state. In the early colonies, a lottery was held to raise funds for the Continental Congress, and later public lotteries were common in England and America. These allowed citizens to hazard a trifling sum in the hope of considerable gain and were widely regarded as a painless form of taxation.

The state-owned Staatsloterij of the Netherlands is the oldest running lottery, dating to 1726. Modern lotteries are regulated by law and offer a range of prizes, from cash to goods, with the prize amount often based on the total number of tickets sold. In some cases, a large jackpot is offered to increase ticket sales; this can backfire by making the odds too high. In any event, the prize pool should be balanced to make the likelihood of winning reasonable for most players.