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The history of lotteries in America is long and varied. In fact, it dates all the way back to the founding fathers. John Hancock ran a lottery to help build Boston’s Faneuil Hall, and George Washington used a similar method to fund the construction of a road across a mountain pass.

However, the modern lotteries as we know them today came about in the nineteen-sixties, when a crisis in state funding emerged and officials were searching for solutions that wouldn’t enrage an increasingly hostile anti-tax electorate. Lottery critics questioned both the ethics of using gambling as a source of revenue and how much the state stood to gain. They argued that the proceeds would be better spent on more important priorities, such as public education.

But the lottery became increasingly popular as the states started to adopt it. “As soon as one state legalizes a lottery, it’s very common for the surrounding states to follow suit pretty quickly,” says Matheson. This geographical pattern helped fuel the growth of Powerball and other multi-state lotteries, which now account for the majority of US lottery revenues. And of course, those jackpots, which have grown to seemingly newsworthy sizes, draw the crowds.