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Lottery players may wonder if something is wrong when 40 drawings go by without a winner, but the odds are simply so steep that it is nearly impossible for anyone to win a jackpot until the prize grows and more people buy tickets. This is the logic behind state lotteries, which aim to attract more players by offering bigger prizes in the hope that they will sell more tickets. That, in turn, will raise more money to fund public programs.

State governments, under pressure to expand their social safety nets and fight inflation, started lotteries as a way to add revenue without raising taxes or creating deficits. They found willing partners in gambling companies, which profit from the business.

The result has been an enormous amount of money being paid out to winners, but a drop in the bucket for actual state budgets. Between 1964 and 2019, lotteries raised a total of $502 billion, or just about 1 to 2 percent of state government spending. In the process, it has also exposed many people to the lure of gambling and exacerbated addiction.