A lottery is a competition based on chance, in which numbered tickets are sold and prizes are given to the holders of numbers drawn at random. Lotteries have been used to raise money for public and private projects, such as building schools and roads. They have also been used to award scholarships, distribute property and other assets, and reward military service. In modern times, most states and the District of Columbia have lotteries.
Many people view lotteries as a form of gambling. They have been criticised for encouraging addictive behaviour and regressive effects on lower-income groups. However, the growth of state lotteries in the 1980s can be attributed to widening economic inequality and popular anti-tax movements that compelled lawmakers to seek alternative ways of raising revenues.
In financial lotteries, participants pay a small sum of money for the chance to win a prize that is often very large. The earliest records of such lotteries date back to the 15th century in the Low Countries. The first public lotteries were organized for raising funds for town fortifications and to help the poor.
The setting of Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery,” is a remote American village where traditions and customs are firmly ingrained in the local community. The story provides a chilling depiction of the power of tradition to lead to coercive conformity and destructive mob mentality. It also examines the capacity of humans to be cruel and brutal in the name of societal compliance.
