Lottery is a process of giving everyone a fair chance to obtain something that might be limited, such as kindergarten admission at a prestigious school, a place on a sports team, or a vaccine for a rapidly spreading disease. The word lottery is derived from the Latin “lotere,” meaning “to pull” or “to choose by lots,” and the early records of this activity are found in the Low Countries in the 15th century, where towns held public lotteries to raise money for town fortifications and to help poor people.
The primary message that state governments rely on when pushing for new forms of gambling is that the funds they collect from lotteries, unlike other sources of revenue, will benefit everyone equally. Lottery revenues have even been used to finance projects such as schools, highways, libraries, and churches in some states. But there is a bigger problem with lottery advertising: It creates an expectation that winning the lottery is a legitimate way to become rich, in a society that already has limited social mobility.
Moreover, the large prizes that lottery advertisements promote obscure the fact that most players will lose. In addition, they focus attention on speculative wealth, rather than a biblical vision of gaining wealth through hard work: “Lazy hands make for poverty; but diligent hands bring wealth” (Proverbs 24:4). As a result, lotteries encourage people to gamble away their money for the illusion of instant riches, ignoring the biblical message that wealth should be earned through honest labor.
