lottery

a voluntary form of revenue raising through the sale of lottery tickets; some percentage of the funds raised is raffled off in the form of money or other prizes. In one type of lottery, called a lotereia-allegri in Russian, lots are drawn immediately after a chance has been bought.

In the USSR lotteries are authorized by the Council of Ministers of the USSR or the council of ministers of a Union republic. In the first years of the Soviet power, lotteries were arranged by the local soviet or social organizations to attract funds from the population for cultural, educational, and other purposes. Since 1926 lotteries organized by various voluntary agencies, such as the Society for the Promotion of Defense and Aviation and Chemical Construction, the Red Cross, and the Red Crescent, have been popular. During the Great Patriotic War of 1941-45 funds were raised by state lotteries to finance the strengthening of the country’s defense. From 1958, state lotteries (including money or prize lotteries, sports lotteries, lotteries put on by the All-Union Voluntary Society for Cooperation With the Army, Air Force, and Navy of the USSR, and lotteries of works of art) are organized in the Union republics, with the income from these lotteries going to the state budgets of the republics.

In other socialist countries (for example, Bulgaria, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic, Rumania, and Czechoslovakia), money lotteries are conducted on a large scale. Local state agencies and social organizations also organize money lotteries.

In capitalist countries, lotteries are organized by municipalities, voluntary social agencies, and local institutions; some countries (Italy and France) conduct state lotteries.