Lottery is a big business, with Americans spending an estimated $100 billion each year on tickets. But it’s not just about winning. It’s also about buying into the idea that lottery proceeds benefit a public good. And that’s a tricky proposition, given the long history of state lotteries—and their often rocky relationship to taxpayers and the poor.

The first recorded lottery tickets were dated to the Low Countries in the 15th century, with local towns holding raffles to raise money for town fortifications and to help the poor. These were not lotteries as we think of them today, though. They were simple gambling arrangements whereby the winner received a fixed sum of money or goods in return for a ticket purchased with money paid into an account, often managed by a church.

In the United States, public lotteries started in the early 18th century. Prizes could be anything from land and slaves to livestock and merchandise. Despite Puritans’ views on gambling—which are well-documented on Quora—state lotteries quickly spread to the new world, where they became a major part of local life. In the 19th century, state-run lotteries were a popular way to raise money for everything from highway construction to educating the public.

While there is no denying that the odds of winning are incredibly slim, people continue to play lotteries in droves. One reason is the belief that winning can provide financial security, especially for the working class and those living on a tight budget. And while some of the winnings are spent on luxuries, most is used to buy necessities like food, housing, and health care.

Another argument for state lotteries is that they produce large revenue streams, which are then used to offset other public expenses. This is a particularly popular argument in times of economic stress, as it helps to ease worries about taxes or cuts to public programs. But studies have shown that the popularity of a lottery is not necessarily related to its state’s actual fiscal condition.

So, how can a player increase their chances of winning? While there are some strategies, such as buying a ticket with numbers that have not been drawn before, most experts agree that you can’t significantly improve your odds of winning. Lotteries are designed to be random, so there is no logical way to predict the outcome of a draw.

Many people also try to develop quote-unquote systems for picking their numbers, with ideas ranging from choosing a date of your children’s birthdays to playing sequences that hundreds of other players might choose (like 1-2-3-4-5-6). Harvard statistics professor Mark Glickman recommends avoiding significant dates and buying Quick Picks instead. But even these methods don’t make much difference, as the winners of a lot of the big jackpots have had to split their prizes with others who picked the same numbers. That’s why he advises picking random numbers or going with the Quick Pick option, which is more likely to win.