A lottery is a game in which participants pay money to play for prizes. Players choose groups of numbers or let machines pick them for them, and are paid if they match the winning numbers in a drawing. The most famous example is the Powerball or Mega Millions, but there are also state lotteries that dish out goods and services ranging from units in a subsidized housing block to kindergarten placements. People play lotteries because they like to gamble. But there is more to it than that: people are often manipulated into playing by the lure of big prizes, which make for effective advertising.
State lotteries are popular because they help state governments raise funds without imposing taxes on citizens. But once established, lottery operations tend to become self-perpetuating and highly politicized. They attract specific constituencies – including convenience store operators (who have contracts with the lotteries to sell tickets); suppliers of products used in the operation (whose heavy contributions to state political campaigns are regularly reported); teachers (in states that earmark lottery revenues for education); and, perhaps most importantly, state legislators and officials who quickly become dependent on the relatively painless revenue generated by lottery games.
Gamblers, including lottery players, often covet money and the things that money can buy. But God forbids covetousness (see Exodus 20:17). One of the great lies in which people are enticed to participate in the lottery is that they will solve their problems if they just win. In the long run, they won’t.