Lottery is a form of gambling wherein participants purchase tickets and hope to win a prize ranging from cash to goods. It is one of the most popular forms of gambling in the world and has a long history, beginning with the Low Countries in the 15th century as a way to raise money for the poor and town fortifications.
Jackson’s story takes place on the eve of an unspecified year’s lottery in a bucolic, small-town setting. Children on summer break assemble in the town square, followed by adult men and women. The narrator introduces the organizer of this particular lottery, a Mr. Summers, and describes the black box that houses the winning ticket. He also notes the older, original paraphernalia is stored somewhere else.
After a while, the children begin to sort themselves into their nuclear families, and Mr. Summers and the others start to engage in the stereotypical small-town chitchat. They describe the different strategies they use to improve their odds of winning, including a quote-unquote system that doesn’t stand up to statistical reasoning, as well as the lucky stores and times they buy tickets.
State governments control and organize lotteries, which can be a powerful force for raising funds. Many states have them for a variety of purposes, from education to infrastructure. They typically gain broad public approval and are not affected by the objective fiscal conditions of a state, which may have little to do with why states adopt them in the first place. Rather, the evolution of lottery policy is often shaped by a wide range of specific constituencies: convenience store operators and their employees; lottery suppliers (who frequently donate heavily to state political campaigns); teachers in states that earmark lottery revenue for them; and so on.