Official lottery is a state-run gaming company that offers games of chance and instant keno. The official New York Lottery raises funds for education and other public services. It is operated by the New York State Gaming Commission and is headquartered in Schenectady. In addition to offering a variety of local games, the official New York Lottery also sells national lottery tickets. Lottery winnings are subject to state and federal income taxes.

The state lottery was once a powerful tool for the social safety net states, giving them the means to expand their services without increasing tax rates on the middle and working classes. But that arrangement ended in the early 1960s as states saw the need to increase their spending and began looking for other revenue sources. Lotteries came into vogue at the time as an alternative to higher taxes, and were seen as a “voluntary” form of taxation that would not hurt the poor and working class as much as other forms of taxation.

But critics argue that lotteries do not work as advertised, and that they rely on the inextricable human urge to gamble for money. They say that the majority of lottery money goes to prizes, and that the rest is inefficiently collected and ends up being a drop in the bucket for actual state budgets, with some estimates as low as 1 or 2 percent. Some critics also point out that lotteries prey on the illusory hopes of the poor, and that this is unseemly in an age where inequality and limited social mobility are so pervasive.