Almost every state in the United States offers a lottery, a type of gambling where you pay a small amount of money for the chance to win a big prize. It’s one of the most popular forms of gambling in the country and, at its best, can be a source of life changing wealth for players who use proven strategies to maximize their odds of winning.

Lottery is all around us, from billboards on the side of the road to scratch-off games at the gas station. It’s also the most popular form of gambling in the world, generating billions in revenue each year. It’s also widely promoted by states as a way to raise money for schools and other causes. But there’s a big gap between the benefits lotteries actually deliver and the rhetoric that they use to convince people to play.

We’ve talked to a lot of lottery players, people who play $50 or $100 a week for years. These are people who are clear-eyed about the odds of winning, and they’re aware that there’s some irrationality involved in their behavior, but they’ve come to this logical conclusion: The only alternative to lottery is not playing at all.

Most state-run lotteries offer a number of different games that vary by price and prize amounts. Prizes are commonly calculated as a percentage of the total sales pool, which includes profits for the promoter and costs associated with promotion. This percentage is typically lower than the percentage of the total pool that is returned to the winner. Some states also provide annuity payments that can be distributed over a set period of time, with the payments rising over time to keep pace with inflation.