The lottery is a form of gambling in which players select numbers or symbols for a chance to win a prize. It is an activity that has become popular in many countries. The first lotteries appeared in the 17th century. They were largely organized to raise money for the poor, but they later became a common source of funding for a variety of public uses. The oldest running lottery is the Dutch state-owned Staatsloterij, which began operations in 1726. Lotteries were widely used in colonial America to finance a wide variety of public projects, including the building of Harvard and Yale, and George Washington’s mountain road lottery in 1768.

In modern times, state lotteries are often seen as a painless way for states to raise revenue without onerous taxes on middle-class and working people. This was the message that New Hampshire promoted when it introduced its lottery in 1964, and it is still the message that state officials continue to push, despite the fact that the percentage of all state revenues that come from the games is small.

Like any other business, the lottery is subject to criticism. Critics focus on the problem of compulsive gambling and the regressive impact on those who have the least incomes to spend. The fact that the disproportionate share of lottery players are lower-income, less educated, and nonwhite only reinforces this point. This is why some critics see the lottery as a disguised tax on those who can least afford it.