Dictionary.net

The history of American lotteries begins with that which the charter of 1612 authorized the Virginia Company to hold for the benefit of its colonizing schemes. In the eighteenth century they were extraordinarily popular in America. Legislatures authorized lotteries for every species of public improvement, for the building of churches and colleges, for the repair of losses to individuals by fire and otherwise; c.g., Faneuil Hall, after the fire of 1761, was rebuilt by lottery. The Continental Congress tried to raise money by lottery in 1777. The sums annually employed by Americans in lottery speculations probably amounted to hundreds of thousands. The last lottery supported by governmental encouragement was the Louisiana State Lottery. An act of Congress passed in 1890 attemped to crush it by forbidding it the use of the U.S. mails.