The lottery is a form of gambling in which tickets are sold and winners are chosen by chance. The prizes may be cash or goods. A popular lottery in the United States is called the Powerball.
Lottery is an old word derived from the Latin lotto, meaning “a distribution by lots,” or, more generally, a process in which items are allocated to participants according to chance: “The prize money for the winners was drawn by lottery.” It is also used of a situation in which people’s success depends on luck rather than on effort or careful organization: “It seemed to be a real lottery as to who would get a scholarship”; “The students were chosen by lottery.” Finally, it can mean a competition in which numbered tokens are distributed, each with a specific number, and a winner is selected at random.
Some states have legalized and run state lotteries, raising money for public projects. These lotteries are usually marketed to the general public with messages that encourage people to buy tickets and to play responsibly. But they have also become highly profitable and increasingly influential business enterprises, with special interest groups benefiting from their operations: convenience store operators (a large percentage of lottery sales are through these outlets); lottery suppliers (heavy contributions to state political campaigns by these entities are reported); teachers, who are a major beneficiary of lottery revenues earmarked for education; state legislators, who get used to the influx of easy money into their budgets; and, of course, problem gamblers.
Some people think that winning the lottery will solve all their problems. But the Bible warns against covetousness (Ecclesiastes 5:10), and the fact that lottery winners often end up with even more trouble than they started with is proof that such hopes are empty (“There is no gain without pain,” Proverbs 14:23). In reality, winning the lottery is just one of many ways that people try to avoid hard work and responsibility. This is a big part of the reason that so many people are willing to play, and spend, in order to try to change their fortunes. If they can just win a little bit, their lives will be perfect. Then they’ll be able to buy the things that they want, and avoid the problems that they deserve. Those who fail to do the work and who rely on luck to succeed will find that life is really just a lottery: one in which they can choose to play. And the odds are always against them. —These examples are programmatically generated and do not represent the views of Merriam-Webster or its editors.