What Are the Odds of Winning the Lottery?

The lottery is a game in which numbers are drawn at random for a chance to win a prize. The odds of winning a jackpot are extremely low, but many people play anyway, spending $50 or $100 a week on tickets. Several of these people have told me that they’ve been playing for years, and that they’re not even close to breaking even. I have to wonder whether these folks really understand the odds of winning, or if they’re simply irrational gamblers who believe that the odds will improve somehow if they keep buying more and more tickets.

People have been using lotteries to distribute property since ancient times. The Bible mentions dividing land by lot, and Roman emperors often used the lottery to give away slaves and other goods. Today, we have electronic lotteries and online systems that can randomly assign numbers to players. In the past, lotteries were often held to raise money for town fortifications and poor relief, and the Continental Congress used a lottery to try to fund the American Revolution.

Lotteries lure people with promises of wealth without effort, but they’re often futile. They also teach us to covet money and the things that it can buy, which is not a good thing—God tells us “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house or wife or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey or anything that belongs to him” (Exodus 20:17). It’s better to earn our money honestly by working hard, and God wants us to be rich in spirit (Proverbs 23:6).