Whether you play the big-money mega-lotteries or simply your state’s weekly drawing, lottery participation has become a popular pastime. While you may be able to improve your odds by trying out some of the many strategies out there (though we’ll be honest, not by much), the overall outcome of winning a lottery prize depends on chance.

Lottery prizes are often generated by a percentage of ticket sales, with the prize amount increasing the longer that the lottery goes without a winner. In addition to the percentage of the total pool that gets paid out in prizes, a portion is typically allocated to pay for administrative expenses such as commissions to retailers selling tickets and salaries for lottery administrators.

In colonial America, publicly organized lotteries were often used to raise money for both private and public ventures, including roads, libraries, churches, schools, canals, bridges, and even a number of universities (including Princeton, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania). Privately organized lotteries helped finance the Continental Congress’s failed attempt at a national lottery in 1776, as well as the foundation of several American colleges, such as Harvard, Dartmouth, Yale, King’s College (now Columbia), and Williams and Mary.

The first European public lotteries to award money prizes were introduced in 15th-century Burgundy and Flanders as towns sought ways to raise funds for defenses or other community needs. In France, Francis I authorized public lotteries in the form of “loterie royale” in 1539.