Lotteries are games of chance in which players win a prize for correctly matching numbers drawn at random. The prizes can be cash or goods. Usually the organizers of a lottery set a fixed percentage of total receipts as the prize fund. In some cases the organizers themselves are at risk in case the number of winners is not sufficient to cover the prizes.

In the early American republic, when the colonies were desperately short of funds for civic projects, Congress relied on lotteries to finance everything from public schools to church construction. It was a time, Cohen writes, when the nation was “defined politically by an aversion to taxation.”

For politicians facing budget crises in this era of tax revolt, lotteries seemed like a way to keep services up without raising taxes or risking punishment at the polls. They were, Cohen writes, “budgetary miracles, the opportunity for states to make revenue appear seemingly out of thin air.”

The first official state lottery was launched in Massachusetts in 1964. It was followed by 13 others in quick succession. Lotteries were particularly popular in the Northeast and Rust Belt, where voters had a deep-seated resentment of state income and property taxes.

Today, New York’s lottery is still a lucrative enterprise, and its marketing tactics are not that different from those of cigarettes or video games. State officials use ads, math and design to lure people in and keep them coming back for more. But they’re not above relying on the psychology of addiction, just as tobacco companies do.