Lottery & Lotto
A lottery ticket is the longest price in gambling, and it's sold as a dream rather than a bet. This section reads it as a bet: what it costs, what it pays, how often, and what happens if you win.
The big two
Powerball and Mega Millions are the games most people mean when they say the lottery. Each page goes through the ticket, the prize chart and the odds, and works out what a ticket is worth on average. I'd read that part before you buy, not because it will stop you, but because a bet you understand is a better bet than one you don't.
The guide
The lottery guide takes the rest one subject at a time: the odds, ticket types, jackpots, multipliers, annuity or lump sum and playing in a syndicate. If you're lucky enough to need them, there's how prizes are taxed and the scams that target winners.
Where you live decides a lot
Every lottery is run by a state, a province or a country, and its own rules decide who can play, whether you can buy online, how long you have to claim and how the prize is taxed. These pages say where a rule is general and where it's your lottery's to set. That line matters. I'd check your own lottery's site for anything that touches your money.
Who runs each game is on the US lotteries, Canadian lotteries and international lotteries pages, with each lottery's official site. For the numbers, go to the official results, and before you buy over the internet, read who can buy online. I'd rather send you to the lottery's own page than copy it and risk being wrong. Copies drift. If playing stops being fun, the responsible gambling page says where to get help.