Official lottery offers fun, convenience and information to players on the go. Play your favorite games from anywhere, anytime on any device including your mobile phone. Play Powerball, Mega Millions, SuperLotto Plus, Fantasy 5, Hot Spot and all Daily games, or try your luck with a scratch-off ticket. Get personalized push notifications for jackpots, winning numbers and more. Download the app and start playing now. Play responsibly, and do not play while crossing streets or operating motor vehicles or chain saws. For help call 2-1-1 or GamblerND in North Dakota or for more info visit www.lotterynd.gov.

Lottery players spend their hard-earned money on the hope that they will win big. But the odds are stacked against them. Many states use a small share of their lottery profits to subsidize social services, education and the military. But critics say those programs benefit middle-class and upper-class families disproportionately. They argue that the lottery preys on poor people by convincing them that they will someday gain wealth by playing.

In the late twentieth century, a backlash against taxes fueled state-run lotteries, which drew on a tradition dating to medieval times in Burgundy and Flanders as towns used them to raise funds for defense and aid the poor. New Hampshire, notoriously tax averse, approved the first modern lottery in 1964, and the phenomenon spread. Generally, once a state legalized the lottery, its neighbors followed suit within a few years. By the 1980s, multi-state games, such as Powerball and Mega Millions, emerged.