彩票的发展历程

A lottery is a form of gambling which involves the drawing of lots for a prize. Some governments outlaw it, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. It is common to find some degree of regulations of lottery by governments.

摸彩是一种通过抽签来获得奖品的赌博形式。有些国家将其视为非法活动，有些国家则认可其以国家彩票或州彩票的形式出现。政府对相关问题出台的法令法规也随处可见。

At the beginning of the 20th century, most forms of gambling like lotteries were illegal in many countries such as the U.S. and most of Europe. This remained so until after World War II. In the 1960s， casinos and lotteries began to appear throughout the world as a means to raise revenue in addition to taxes.

20世纪初期，像摸彩这类赌博活动在美国及欧洲的许多国家里都是非法的。这种情况一直延续至二战之后。20世纪60年代，赌场及彩票作为除税收之外的另一增加收益的途径而风行全世界。

Lotteries come in many formats. The prize can be a fixed amount of cash or goods. In this format there is risk to the organizer if insufficient tickets are sold. More commonly the prize fund will be a fixed percentage of the receipts. A popular form of this is the "50-50" draw where the organizers promise that the prize will be 50% of the revenue.

彩票以多种形式存在。奖品可以是一定金额的现金抑或是物品。如果彩票没有足够多的销售额，就会给组织者带来一定的风险。通常来说，获奖金额是所获得收人的某一固定比例。普遍采用的形式是半对半，即组织者向公众承诺获奖额度占总收人的一半。

The purchase of lottery tickets is, from the perspective of classical economics，irrational. However, in addition to the chance of winning, the ticket may enable some purchasers to experience a thrill and to indulge in a fantasy of becoming wealthy. If the entertainment value (or other non-monetary value) obtained by playing is high enough to a given individual, then the purchase of a lottery ticket could represent a gain in overall utility. In such a case, the monetary loss would be outweighed by the non-monetary gain, thus making the purchase a rational decision for that individual.

从古典经济学的角度来说，购买彩票这一活动是不明智的。然而，除了可能中奖的机会外，彩票能给购买者带来一时的兴奋或沉浸于一夜变富的千秋大梦中。如果由此获得的娱乐价值（或其他非盈利价值）对某个人来说足够的高，那么购买彩票便称得上是整体效用的一大收获。这种情况下，失去的那部分钱由非盈利效用抵消了，购买彩票对这个人来说便是一个明智的选择了。

In the U.S., the existence of lotteries is subject to the laws of each jurisdiction; there is no national lottery. Before the advent of state-sponsored lotteries, many illegal lotteries thrived. Instant lottery tickets were introduced in the 1970s and have since become a major source of state lottery revenue.

在美国，彩票受到各司法管辖区法律的约束，没有国家彩票。在州彩票出现之前, 即时彩票出现于20世纪70年代，之后便成为州彩票收人的主要来源。

Presently, many lotteries in the U.S. donate large portions of their proceeds to the public education system. However, these funds frequently replace instead of supplement conventional funding, resulting in no additional money for education.

目前，美国有许多中彩者都会将他们收益的大部分用于捐助公共教育事业。然而， 这些资金常常是取代了常规集资，而不是作为其补充，因而并未给教育带来额外的资金。