New York Lottery official website features a variety of online services including lottery results, game information, ticket purchasing, and more. Players can track their winnings and view prizes awarded for each drawing on the official website.
While some people play the lottery to improve their chances of winning a big prize, it’s also possible to win small prizes for a relatively low cost by simply playing more often. This is why many states set the jackpots so high, which attracts more players and increases the chances of a single winner.
Historically, state-run lotteries have raised a lot of money, but they have been a drop in the bucket overall for actual state governments. In fact, in the years between 1964 and 2019, the fifty-two states that operate lotteries combined to raise only about $502 billion. That’s a lot of money, but it’s still not very much.
The modern incarnation of the state-run lottery began in the immediate postwar period, when states had just started to build their social safety nets and were starting to realize that they might need to start raising taxes to pay for them. And since America was defined politically by its aversion to taxation, state officials thought the lottery might be a good alternative.
Lottery critics argued that it wasn’t right for government to promote gambling. They worried that the money would end up benefiting a few rich winners instead of boosting public services and the middle class. And they worried about bribery and corruption. In fact, the Louisiana Lottery, which ran until 1963, had an enormous profit margin and a reputation for bribery that made it notorious.