The official lottery is an activity in which numbers are drawn at random for the purpose of obtaining a prize. A prize may be a fixed cash amount, goods, or services. While the lottery is often considered a form of gambling, it can also be used for military conscription, commercial promotions in which property or money is given away by random selection, and even jury selection in some countries. The lottery is also a common source of funding for civil defense.

Lottery proponents argue that they are not a form of gambling because participants do not exchange real goods for their chances to win. Instead, they purchase tickets in exchange for the opportunity to enter a drawing with a chance of winning a prize. They also point to the enormous jackpots, which can attract news coverage and boost ticket sales.

In the early United States, lotteries were used to fund everything from civic improvements to public works projects, and the founding fathers were big fans of the concept. Benjamin Franklin ran a lottery in 1748 to raise funds for a militia to defend Philadelphia against the French, and John Hancock ran one in 1767 to help finance Boston’s Faneuil Hall. George Washington once ran a lottery to raise money for a road through Virginia’s mountains, but the project never got off the ground.

Lottery opponents, however, questioned both the morality of funding public services through gambling and how much governments really stood to gain from the practice. They hailed from across the political spectrum and all walks of life, but were most vociferous among devout Protestants who viewed state-sponsored lotteries as akin to bribery.