Lottery is a game of chance where you pay a small amount for the opportunity to win a large sum of money. It is also a common way for governments to raise funds for things such as road construction and education. This video provides a basic introduction to the concept of Lottery, and could be used by kids & beginners as part of a Money & Personal Finance curriculum.
The first lottery records are found in the 15th century, when towns in the Low Countries began to hold public lotteries for such purposes as raising money for town fortifications and helping the poor. It was only later that governments began to use the lottery to fund important projects such as building colleges like Harvard, Yale, and King’s College (now Columbia).
When you play a lottery, you are buying a ticket for the chance of winning a prize that is often much bigger than the cost of the ticket itself. Some prizes are fixed amounts of cash, and others are goods such as cars or houses. Sometimes, the prize can be a percentage of the total receipts, and in this case there is risk for the organizers in case the number of tickets sold does not meet expectations.
The people who tend to play lotteries are often disproportionately lower-income, less educated, and nonwhite. They are a group that is also prone to credit card debt. Americans spend $80 Billion on lotteries every year – money that could be used to build an emergency savings account or pay off debt.