Lottery, the game in which you pay a small amount of money for a chance to win a larger sum of money, is something most people have played at one time or another. And while we’ve all fantasized about what we would do with the money if we won, it’s important to remember that winning doesn’t necessarily make you rich, at least not right away.

The practice of determining fates by lottery dates back thousands of years, with a number of biblical examples and a long history in ancient Rome (where emperors used it to give away property and slaves at Saturnalian dinner entertainments). Public lotteries became popular during the 17th century, when they were used to finance many private and public ventures, including road construction, wharves, libraries, churches, colleges, canals, bridges, and other public buildings. Lotteries were even used as a painless method of taxation.

A modern state-run lottery typically offers a pool of prizes that is predetermined, with some large prizes and several smaller ones. Typically, the total value of the prizes is calculated after all expenses—including profits for the promoter and costs of promotion—have been deducted from the pool, and then distributed to winners.

Some states have started to use new ways of raising funds, such as online games and instant tickets. However, the vast majority of state-run lotteries still follow old-fashioned methods that require participants to purchase tickets in advance of a drawing at a later date. Research suggests that lotteries are largely used in middle-class neighborhoods, with far fewer players proportionally coming from low-income areas.