Lottery is a process in which numbers are drawn at random to allocate prizes. The casting of lots has a long history, with examples from the Bible and ancient Rome, and it has become an important source of revenue for public works and services in many countries. In the United States, state-sponsored lotteries have played a significant role in the financing of roads, bridges, canals, canal locks, and even the earliest colleges. Lotteries have also been embraced by governments as a painless form of taxation.

Whether the prize is a lump sum or an annuity payment, lottery winnings are taxable. The amount of the jackpot is the advertised price, but there are withholdings and taxes that reduce the final payout. People buy tickets for a variety of reasons. Some believe that the math behind lottery mathematics supports their purchase; others buy tickets because they enjoy the fantasy of becoming wealthy and think that it is a fun activity. Regardless of motivation, the purchase of lottery tickets cannot be rationally justified using decision models based on expected value maximization.

While selecting random lottery numbers is the best way to maximize your chances of winning, most experts recommend that you avoid choosing birthdays or other personal numbers like home addresses and social security numbers. Harvard statistics professor Mark Glickman says these numbers are more likely to be chosen by other players and have a lower chance of being drawn. Instead, he suggests picking low and high numbers and trying to avoid having all even or all odd numbers (only 3% of the winning numbers have been all one or the other).