Lottery (lat’r):

A scheme for distributing prizes, especially money, by chance. In modern times, the term has come to refer to any event or process that involves a random selection of participants for a limited number of available prizes; examples include a lottery for units in a subsidized housing block or kindergarten placements at a particular public school.

The practice of determining the distribution of property by lot goes back to ancient times; there are numerous biblical examples of Moses dividing land among the tribes, and a popular dinner entertainment in Roman times was the apophoreta, in which the host gave out pieces of wood with symbols on them to guests at the end of a meal, with a prize being awarded for each symbol that was drawn. Lotteries were also used to award gifts during Saturnalian feasts, including slaves and fine goods.

In the early United States, lotteries were used to raise funds for various purposes. Benjamin Franklin organized a lottery to raise money to purchase cannons for the defense of Philadelphia. A lottery was also used to provide land for the construction of several American colleges, including Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, Union, and William and Mary.

A lottery is run by a state, or in some cases an entire region or nation. The state establishes rules and regulations governing the conduct of lotteries, usually delegating to a separate lottery division the responsibility for selecting and licensing retailers, training retail employees to operate lottery terminals, selling tickets and redeeming winnings, promoting lottery games, paying high-tier prizes, and overseeing the distribution of the proceeds from ticket sales. A lottery pool is the total value of tickets eligible for a specific drawing, and a prize payout is the percentage of tickets sold that are awarded a prize.