As you reach in to pull a coin out of your pocket, you read the instructions to the game. You scratch at the ticket, and then you sit and gaze at it. That’s when you realize that you’ve just won the jackpot. You re-read the instructions, and look at your numbers again. This time you look at them with serious eyes as if the numbers were lying to you, and you were trying to uncover the truth, but the numbers don’t change. You just won the lottery.

The lottery is a form of gambling that involves a drawing for a prize. Prizes can be fixed amounts of cash or goods, but more commonly the prize fund will be a percentage of the receipts from all over the state or country added together.

The most common forms of lottery are Lotto, Little Lottos, Dailies, Multi-State Games, and Instant Games. The Instant Games are scratch-off tickets. In Lottos, purchasers are sometimes allowed to select the numbers on their lottery ticket, which can mean a possibility of multiple winners.

The chances of winning a lottery jackpot can vary depending on the lottery design, and the number of people playing for that jackpot. It is estimated that over two million people play the lottery each week.

Most winners, unfortunately, don’t win the jackpot, but most do win 50% of the purchase price of the ticket. For example, if a person buys a $1.00 scratch off ticket, they will most likely win a $0.50 prize.

An East Leyden student’s parents recently won the lottery. Senior Dulce Monreal‘s mother scratched a $3.00 crossword ticket on November 26th and was shocked to find that she had won $1000.

“After my mom scratched the ticket, she was in disbelief and had me make sure it was correct. When I had confirmed it, we were so excited, but we had to wait a couple days for my mom’s friend to take us to cash it in. In that couple days, we ended up losing the ticket! We looked everywhere for it when my grandma finally suggested to look in the garbage. After ruffling through two bags of trash we finally found it and were able to cash it in,” Monreal explained.

If a person does win the jackpot in the U.S., the winner gets to choose between an annuity payment and a one-time payment.

The one-time payment (cash or lump sum) is a “smaller” amount than the advertised (annuity) jackpot, even before applying any withholdings and taxes in which the prize is subject to.

The annuity payment is a payment that is given out evenly through a set number of years, so by the end of the payments, the amount is what was advertised.

The Monreal family recently received their lump sum check in early December, and are planning on going Christmas shopping with some of their winnings, and they are putting the rest aside for savings.

Another local winning was in February.  Schiller Park resident Rota Juarez won a $1 million dollar prize through the $2 Powerball game.

Some people argue that the lottery is a bad thing, and there are certain risks involved with winning the lottery. There can be security and safety risks associated with publicly announcing the lottery winners. Also, winners sometimes feel a lack of social normalness from the dramatic lifestyle change which can be very overwhelming.

Yet, there are several good things that are associated with winning.

In Illinois, 59% of the winnings go to the winner, while 30% of proceeds from the Illinois lottery help fund K-12 public schools and help the state to build roads, bike trails and schools, and 11% other/commissions. Some states even have specialty scratch off tickets to support a specific cause like HIV/AIDS, breast cancer, and war veterans.

Lotteries in colonial America played a significant part in the financing of both private and public ventures. For example, they financed the building of roads, libraries, churches, colleges, canals, and bridges. During wars, America would use lotteries to finance militias.

During the beginning of the 20th century, most forms of gambling were illegal, including lottery, until after World War II, but in the 1960’s casinos and lotteries appeared throughout the world as a means to raise revenue in addition to taxes. On March 12, 1964, New Hampshire became the first state to sell lottery tickets in the modern era.

Lotteries are now a part of everyday life, and with the technology era expanding even the lottery is evolving.

In 2012, Illinois was the first state to begin to sell Lottery tickets online, and, at present, 12 other states have already approved to expand sales online. The lottery is expected to expand in 2013, from 56 billion in 2012, because of the additional sales available online.