The lottery is a form of gambling in which numbers are drawn at random for a prize. Some governments outlaw it, while others endorse it to the extent of organizing a national or state lottery. In the United States, for example, winners can choose between annuity payments or a one-time payment. If a winner opts for the lump sum, they will likely receive a smaller amount than the advertised jackpot, due to taxes and withholdings.

Lotteries have a long history in human society and are used for everything from selecting the next king of Rome (Nero was a fan) to divining God’s will, but they’re most often deployed as a means of raising money for public projects and services. In colonial America, for example, they financed roads, canals, schools, churches, and even a few warships. Many of our nation’s most famous colleges, including Harvard, Yale, and Columbia, were founded with lottery funds.

Although there are a few states that don’t offer lotteries—including Alabama, Alaska, Utah, Mississippi, and Nevada, where the government already gets a cut of gambling revenue—there are 44 that do. And while some people rely on luck alone to win, a few savvy players have devised strategies for buying tickets in bulk, and playing them smartly, to maximize their chances of winning. HuffPost’s Highline profiled one such couple, a Michigan-based husband and wife, who made $27 million over nine years by exploiting a simple math formula. Read the full article here.