The lottery has long been a popular way to raise money for public projects. Its popularity has created a variety of issues that can be difficult to manage. For example, when the prize money grows large enough, it becomes impossible to keep a lid on the number of tickets sold. The result is that prizes tend to be less than advertised and the chances of winning are lower than the public would expect.

In the early days of state lotteries, they were usually little more than traditional raffles where the public bought tickets for a drawing to be held weeks or months in the future. However, innovations in the 1970s changed that. These innovations introduced instant games and scratch-off tickets. These games were much smaller and the prize money – usually in the form of cash or merchandise – was more immediate. The instant games drew the attention of people who had never before played the lottery.

As a result, the revenue that state lotteries generated increased rapidly. However, these increases did not continue and they eventually leveled off. Lotteries then had to introduce new games in order to maintain their revenue streams.

Lottery commissions generally rely on two messages to promote their products. One is that playing the lottery is fun. This message obscures the regressivity of the activity by portraying it as a recreational pursuit and by claiming that the proceeds go to good causes. The other is that you should feel a sense of civic duty to support the lottery because it helps the state.