lottery

5 definitions • 6 examples

a game, often organized by the state or a charity in order to make money, in which tickets with numbers are sold to people who then have a chance of winning a prize if their number is chosen

something that depends only on luck and is not fair:

Education in England is something of a lottery.

a system of selling numbered tickets and giving prizes to those people whose numbers are chosen by chance:

Even if she won the lottery, Paige says she’d still keep her job.

a game of chance, often organized by the government to raise money, in which people win cash if they have bought a winning ticket:

The council applied for a £40m grant from the national lottery to redevelop local facilities.

lottery ticket/jackpot/winner Last night's national lottery jackpot of €2.8m was won by two lucky ticket-holders.

lottery funding/money/revenue The state is expected to have $15.6 billion in general fund and lottery revenues for the two-year budget period.

something that is affected by luck rather than being controlled by a fair process:

With interest rates rising, some people feel that the property market is a bit of a lottery at the moment.