The lottery has been around for a long time. The Old Testament instructs Moses to divide land by lot, and Roman emperors used it as a way of giving away slaves during Saturnalian feasts. People have a natural attraction to these games, which offer a low risk and high reward. But they are also addictive and can be dangerous for some. In the story, The Lottery, Shirley Jackson depicts the ugly underbelly of human nature and the blind following of outdated traditions.
The word lottery is believed to come from the Dutch word lotte “fate” or “luck,” and was first recorded in English in 1569, with advertisements using the term appearing earlier. The earliest state-sponsored lotteries were held in the Low Countries in the early 16th century to raise funds for town fortifications and to help poor citizens.
Traditionally, state lotteries resembled traditional raffles, with participants buying tickets for a drawing at some future date, often weeks or months away. In the 1970s, however, innovations such as scratch-off tickets were introduced that allow players to win a prize immediately. This has produced a second set of issues, as revenue streams from this form of the lottery typically expand rapidly but then level off and even begin to decline. This has led to an ongoing cycle of introducing new games and increasing promotional spending to maintain and increase revenues.
Criticism of the lottery has ranged from the admonition not to play compulsively to the alleged regressive impact on low-income individuals. Numerous studies have shown that those with lower incomes tend to play lottery games at higher rates than their share of the overall population, and that these games may be a disguised tax on those least able to afford it.
