lottery

Plural: lotteries

Noun

• A game of chance where tickets are drawn for prizes.
• something that is regarded as a chance event
  • "the election was just a lottery to them"
• players buy (or are given) chances and prizes are distributed by casting lots
• A scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance, especially a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing particular numbers draw prizes, the other tickets are blanks.
• Something decided by chance.
• Allotment; a thing allotted.

Examples

• Dave plays the lottery almost every week, but always picks different numbers.
• Drawing tiles in Scrabble can feel like a LOTTERY, sometimes you get lucky.
• It's a bit of a lottery whether we'll get a good table in that diner.

Synonyms

drawing