Header from 1840 US patent on a new type of private lottery

In the United States, the existence of lotteries is subject to the laws of each state; there is no national lottery.

Before the advent of state-sponsored lotteries, many illegal lotteries thrived; for example, see Numbers game and Peter H. Matthews. The first modern state lottery in the U.S. was established in the state of New Hampshire in 1964; today, lotteries are established in forty-one states and the District of Columbia. On October 8, 1970, New York held the first million dollar lottery drawing.

The first modern interstate lottery in the U.S. was Tri-State Lotto. Tri-State Lotto was formed in 1985 and linked the states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. In 1988, the Multi-State Lottery Association was formed with Oregon, Iowa, Kansas, Rhode Island, West Virginia and the District of Columbia as its charter members; it is best known for its "Powerball" drawing, which is designed to build up very large jackpots. Another interstate lottery, The Big Game (now called Mega Millions), was formed in 1996 by the states of Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan and Virginia as its charter members.

Instant tickets, also known as scratch cards, were first introduced in the 1970s and have since become a major source of state lottery revenue. Some states have introduced keno and video lottery terminals (slot machines in all but name).

Other interstate lotteries include: Hot Lotto, Lotto South, and Wild Card 2.

With the advent of the Internet it became possible for people to play lottery-style games on-line, many times for free (the cost of the ticket being supplemented by merely seeing, say, a pop-up ad). Some of the many websites which offer free games (after registration) include www.iwinweekly.com and the larger iwon.com, which is backed by the CBS broadcasting corporation. GTech Corporation, in the United States, administrates 70% of the worldwide online and instant lottery business, according to its website.

This guide is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.