The lottery is a game in which participants pay to buy tickets, with a chance of winning prizes ranging from cash and cars to houses and vacations. In the United States, most state governments offer lotteries. A person can win a prize if the numbers they select match those randomly drawn by machines. Some people use tactics they believe will improve their chances of winning, from playing more often to selecting lucky numbers like birthdays. But there is only one proven way to increase your odds of winning, Harvard statistics professor Dr. Mark Glickman previously told CNBC Make It: buying more tickets.

Historically, state governments have used lotteries to raise money for public purposes. They are a popular source of painless revenue: voters willingly spend money on tickets in the hope that they will receive some of the profits; and politicians look at lotteries as a way to get tax revenues without raising taxes or cutting other government programs.

But it is important to remember that lottery play is gambling and a form of speculation, not an investment. By purchasing lottery tickets, people forgo opportunities to save for other goals, such as retirement or college tuition. And, as a group, lottery players contribute billions in ticket sales to government coffers, which could have been put toward better alternatives. Moreover, there is no evidence that lottery revenue has been significantly related to a state’s fiscal condition.