Lottery is a form of gambling in which people purchase chances, or tickets, to win money or goods. In a typical lottery, a single person can win the jackpot by choosing one or more numbers from a group of numbers on a ticket. The jackpot for some lotteries is enormous, such as the $1.537 billion prize that was won in 2018 in Mega Millions. The odds of winning are very low. Lottery players are typically coveting the things that money can buy, even though God forbids covetousness (Exodus 20:17).

Many state governments conduct lotteries in order to raise revenue for public purposes such as education. Lottery winnings are paid out in either annuity payments or in a lump sum. A winner who chooses the lump-sum payment receives a much smaller amount than the advertised jackpot because of income taxes withholdings.

The practice of distributing property or other things among people by chance dates back to ancient times. For example, the Old Testament instructs Moses to distribute land by lot. Lotteries were also popular in the Roman Empire, where emperors often gave away slaves and property as entertainment during Saturnalian feasts. A famous Roman lotteries was apophoreta, in which guests would draw on wood pieces that represented symbols for prizes they could take home.

In the United States, most state governments hold lotteries that sell a variety of games. Some state lotteries offer instant-win scratch-off games, while others offer weekly or daily games that require people to pick three or more numbers from a set of balls. Some states also offer multi-state lotteries that include Powerball and Mega Millions, where people can buy tickets from several different states.