In a lottery, people buy numbered tickets, and some of those numbers are drawn at random. The people with the winning ticket win a prize. The word “lottery” is also used to describe the process by which decisions are made, such as which judge is assigned a case or who gets elected president.
It’s easy to dismiss people who play the lottery as irrational, but I’ve talked with some of them, and they come in clear-eyed about how bad the odds are. They explain how they’ve been playing for years, spending $50, $100 a week. They’re not in denial about the odds, but they do have a small glimmer of hope that this time they might win.
Many of them choose their own numbers, often birthdays or the numbers of family members and friends. Others choose a combination of letters and numbers, like seven, the number that won a Mega Millions jackpot for a woman last year. People also believe that certain retailers or times of day are lucky and purchase a greater number of tickets at those places. Some even pay for advertising to convince others that they have the secret to winning.
The first European lotteries to offer money prizes in the modern sense of the word were held in 15th-century Burgundy and Flanders, with towns trying to raise funds for town fortifications and aiding the poor. Francis I of France permitted a number of lotteries to be established for private and public profit in his cities. Possibly the first European public lottery offering money prizes was the ventura, which was held in Modena from 1476 under the auspices of the d’Este family (see House of Este).
But winning the lottery requires a long-term commitment and consistent investment of time and energy. And there’s no evidence that you increase your chances of winning by playing more frequently or by buying more tickets for the same drawing. Those are just ways for the state to collect a fee without directly taxing you.
The bottom line is that God wants us to earn wealth through diligence, not by gambling on a get-rich-quick scheme. Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent hands bring wealth. (Proverbs 24:25) Let’s be wise and walk in his ways, and honor him by the way we gain our money. Then we’ll be able to truly say that we don’t live in want. (James 3:14-17) Click to read the full article in our March issue.