The Official Lottery app offers fun, convenience and information to players on the go. Players can check their numbers, track prizes, enter Second-Chance Drawings, purchase tickets and see the latest results for Online Games, Fast Play, Keno, and Xpress Sports. In addition, the app allows players to scan their tickets to see if they’re a winner and access their VIP players club rewards.

The state-owned Staatsloterij is the oldest running lottery in the world, founded in 1726. Its roots, however, can be traced to the Low Countries in the 15th century, when public lotteries raised funds for everything from town fortifications to helping the poor.

States run the lotteries because they need revenue, and they’re convinced that it’s better to do so than raise taxes on those with lower incomes. They also believe that gambling is inevitable and so might as well capture it to generate money, a belief that grew particularly strong in the immediate post-World War II period, when states wanted to expand their social safety nets but couldn’t do so without onerous taxes on working people.

But while the lotteries raise a lot of money, it’s only a drop in the bucket for actual state government budgets. And while state officials and the commissions that run them try to convince voters that winning the lottery is good, there’s something very wrong about a system in which people win huge amounts of money by buying tickets they already pay taxes on – just like every other product or service they buy.