A lottery number is a random combination of numbers drawn from a pool. It is used to decide winners of the lottery games such as Powerball, Mega Millions, and Pick 6.

A lottery is a form of gambling that raises money for various purposes, including schools, roads, libraries, and other public projects. Lotteries have been in use since the seventeenth century, when they were first invented in Genoa.

In 1980, New York state began operating its own version of the daily lottery. In a controversial move, the Assembly enacted legislation that allowed state-run lotteries. The Assembly claimed that a portion of the proceeds would be used to fund education, an argument that turned out to be false.

Cohen argues that this new advocacy of the lottery came from the nation’s late-twentieth-century tax revolt, which made it difficult for many states to balance their budgets without either raising taxes or cutting services. The lottery offered a solution to both of these problems.

It also helped to distract the Assembly from its lingering ethical objections, which it had previously dismissed as unfounded. These objections, Cohen says, were rooted in the belief that state-run lotteries would primarily attract Black numbers players who, by the logic of those who supported the legalization of lottery gambling, would foot the bill for services that white voters wanted to avoid paying for.

But that argument had its limits. As Cohen points out, many of the same white voters who approved legalization of the lottery were reluctant to pay for schools in urban areas where they had recently moved.