Lottery is a way to win a prize by picking a group of numbers. In the United States, people spend upwards of $100 billion annually on these games, making them the most popular form of gambling in the country. State governments promote these games as a way to raise revenue, and they often tout the percentage of overall state budgets that lottery proceeds bring in. But the truth is that most of these profits are a windfall for a small group of winners, while lottery players as a whole contribute billions to government receipts they could have used to save for retirement or college tuition. This is not a good deal for most people.

People buy tickets in the hope that they will strike it rich. Whether that dream is to buy a sports car or to fund their children’s education, there’s an inextricable human impulse to gamble. But lotteries are not just games of chance—they’re also a sham that dangles the promise of wealth to those with the least financial means.

Until recently, the ubiquity of the lottery has been mostly obscured by its popularity and the sway of advertising. State governments spend millions of dollars on promoting the game and its jackpots, while the vast majority of participants are unaware that winning is a rare event with stratospheric odds. Even if they do know, they are likely to believe that there are ways to increase their chances of winning—for example, by picking the winning combination of numbers on a Quick Pick or by choosing a number that’s significant to them. These tips may have some validity, but they are far from foolproof.

Many experts are urging people to stop buying lottery tickets, but it will be difficult. The industry is so ingrained in our culture that it will take years to change perceptions. In the meantime, consumers should make informed decisions about how much to spend and what the real odds of winning are.

The first recorded use of a lottery was in the Chinese Han dynasty between 205 and 187 BC. A similar practice is widespread in modern societies, from determining who gets a job to which apartments they will live in or whether their child will get into a good school. The idea that luck determines one’s fortune goes back a long way, with biblical stories of Moses drawing lots for land and Roman emperors holding lotteries to give away slaves and property during Saturnalian feasts.

The growth of the lottery in the 1980s reflects rising economic inequality and new materialism that asserts anyone can become rich if they work hard enough or happen to be lucky. This is a dangerous message, and the truth is that most people will not win the lottery. But for those who choose to participate, they can minimize the damage by understanding their odds and using proven strategies. For instance, a person can limit their losses by selecting combinatorial groups with a high success-to-failure ratio.