If you’re a lottery sgp player, you’ve no doubt noticed that it’s been a long time since anyone has matched all six numbers to win the Powerball jackpot. That’s how the game is designed; it’s supposed to be difficult, and so the prize gets bigger with every drawing until someone wins. Then, more people will buy tickets and the jackpot starts over again.

It’s an ingenious strategy, and it’s a big reason why state lotteries are so popular. They’re a form of gambling, but they also raise money for things like education and public parks. Those are good reasons to support them, even if you don’t like gambling.

The popularity of state lotteries began in the nineteen-sixties, when growing awareness of all the money that could be made in gambling collided with a crisis in state funding. With a swelling population and inflation, it was becoming increasingly hard for states to balance their budgets without raising taxes or cutting services, which were unpopular with voters.

Advocates of legalized lotteries seized on the strategy. They stopped arguing that a lottery would float all of a state’s budget and instead claimed that the revenue would cover a single line item that was both popular and nonpartisan—often education, but sometimes elder care or aid for veterans. It wasn’t foolproof, but it allowed them to argue that a vote for the lottery was not a vote against education or veterans. It’s a message that has proved effective for state lotteries and continues to resonate in the new era of digital advertising.