A lottery is a process that allocates something valuable to participants by drawing lots. Examples of this include kindergarten placements at reputable schools and a lottery for units in a subsidized housing block. Regardless of how they’re run, lotteries often inspire enormous excitement among participants and the public. The National Basketball Association, for example, holds a lottery to determine the first chance to draft the best college players out of school.

Making decisions and determining fates by casting lots has a long record in human history, including multiple instances in the Bible. Its use for material gain, however, is more recent. In colonial America, lotteries played a major role in funding private and public ventures. Benjamin Franklin ran one in 1748 to help establish a militia for defense against French marauders; John Hancock ran a lottery to finance Boston’s Faneuil Hall, and George Washington ran a lottery to fund the construction of a road across a mountain pass.

State lotteries generally start out as traditional raffles, with participants buying tickets in return for a chance to win prizes that are announced at some future date—typically weeks or months in the future. But they often evolve over time to meet the needs of a growing and changing audience. They may change the size of their prize pools, offer different types of games, and introduce new rules to improve security and integrity. They also respond to persistent criticisms, such as the alleged regressive impact on low-income populations and the possibility of compulsive gambling.