A lottery is a gambling game in which people buy tickets for a chance to win a prize, usually money. It’s also a method of raising money for public or charitable purposes, including building roads, canals, canal locks, schools, universities and churches. It has been around for thousands of years. In modern times, it’s often a public service funded by state taxes. It’s very popular, especially in the United States.

In the immediate post-World War II period, lotteries began to gain popularity as a way for states to expand their social safety nets without raising taxes too much on poorer citizens. But that arrangement was beginning to crumble by the 1960s, as states faced inflation and the growing costs of the Vietnam War. Then, with anti-tax movements rising in force, legislators sought alternatives to increasing taxes. And the lottery was perfect for it.

Lottery advertising focuses on highlighting the life-changing potential of winning, tapping into aspirational desires in our age of inequality and limited social mobility. The messages are coded to create FOMO—the fear of missing out on a rare opportunity to drastically improve your situation.

The message is often paired with tips about how to increase your chances of winning, such as purchasing more tickets or selecting numbers that begin and end with the same digit. But these strategies aren’t statistically sound or even true. In fact, Harvard statistics professor Mark Glickman maintains that “it’s more likely to get hit by lightning than win the lottery.” And there’s no guarantee you’ll keep all of your winnings if you do win.