The practice of distributing property or even slaves by lot has a long history in human culture—it is described in several biblical passages and was a popular dining entertainment among the Romans. At the outset of the Revolutionary War the Continental Congress used lotteries to raise money for the army, and public lotteries were a common source of revenue for many projects in the American colonies. Lottery games were promoted as painless forms of taxation and played an important role in helping to fund Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, King’s College (now Columbia), and other American colleges.

Today’s state-sponsored lotteries continue this ancient tradition, raising billions of dollars for state government use. Despite the popularity of the lottery, it remains a dangerous form of gambling that undermines family and economic stability. Moreover, state governments need to examine whether the benefits of a lottery are outweighed by the costs to society.

Almost everybody plays the lottery at least occasionally, with one in eight Americans buying a ticket once a week. But the real moneymakers are a core group of players that is disproportionately lower-income, less educated, nonwhite, and male. This group is also more likely to play in a state where the lottery is legal. Those facts suggest that the lottery is not only a gamble with bad odds but is also an unfair tax on certain groups of people. In this article I’ll explore the reasons for these disparities and discuss how the lottery could be reformed to make it fairer for all.