Official lottery results are the official, verified winning numbers selected in the Lottery drawing. Results are posted as soon as they are available and may be published in newspapers and on the Internet. Winning numbers are valid for one drawing only and must be claimed within one month of the drawing date. The Lottery is not responsible for lost, stolen or destroyed tickets. Tickets that are mutilated, altered or irregular in any way, or that fail to meet validation and security requirements, are void.

A lottery’s roots stretch back to medieval times, when cities and towns used them to raise money for town fortifications and other projects. By the fourteen-hundreds, lottery games were popular in the Low Countries and England.

In the immediate post-World War II period, states cast about for ways to fund their services without enraging an increasingly anti-tax electorate. With inflation soaring, state deficits began to mount, and the lottery seemed like a solution that wouldn’t ruffle feathers.

The idea is that if people buy into the idea that they have a chance to become rich, it gives them a reason to keep buying the tickets. In the end, though, the actual odds make little difference, and a portion of every ticket goes to state governments, which lawmakers decide how to spend it.

That may be the case, but some critics have questioned both the morality of funding state services through gambling and the amount of money that states really stand to gain from lottery revenues. Others have warned that the lottery preys on poor people by falsely promising them wealth.