In modern American culture, money is often equated with happiness. It is not surprising, then, that get-rich-quick schemes like the lottery attract millions of players looking for a big payoff. First seen in the United States in the 1800s, government lotteries were made illegal because they were so often "rigged," or designed to cheat those who bought tickets hoping to win money. In the mid-1960s, the lottery made a comeback when the states of New York and New Hampshire introduced lottery games to boost their income. Since that time state-run lotteries have grown in popularity and size. In the 1990s, thirty-eight states operated lotteries, paying out millions and earning billions of dollars each year. Huge multistate lotteries introduced in the 1990s brought potential jackpots in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Lottery critics question whether it is right to use legalized gambling to raise money for the...