Everyone knows that a lottery is a tax on people who can’t do math—your odds of ever winning are laughably low. That doesn’t stop a lot of people from playing, whether it’s the occasional scratcher for fun or an organized effort to win a billion bucks or so.
But a lottery is just a system of collecting entry fees and awarding a prize—a price that doesn’t have to be money. Sometimes the best and most equitable way to award something, sell something, or give access to something is a lottery, because it leaves everything up to chance, removing bias—and because it can actually be a more profitable way to transfer property than through a straightforward sale. Here are some of the coolest lotteries where you won’t win any cash.
Liquor
You might not think you’d need a lottery to buy whiskey, a product that’s available in most places at relatively reasonable prices. But what about rare and expensive whiskies? A bottle of Pappy Van Winkle’s Family Reserve 23 Years Old will run you thousands of dollars at a store, for example—but this year the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board holds a lottery of limited-release whiskies, and the 2025 lottery included the chance to buy a bottle for just $400.
Other states have similar lotteries for rare liquors—Ohio holds an annual Bottle Lottery in the fall, and the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority holds one every year as well. These lotteries aren’t restricted to whiskey—tequilas and other spirits are often included—but they all operate similarly: Winners get the chance to purchase extremely rare and pricey bottles at heavy discounts.
A house
If you’ve thought about buying a house recently, you may have noticed that they are a bit expensive—housing prices have risen 30% in five years, on average. One solution might be to win a house in a lottery.
This is a thing that actually happens. Recently, a woman in Ireland put her house up in a lottery using the site Raffall.com. She charged people $7 per ticket, figuring she’d actually make more from ticket sales than she would from a traditional sale—and it seems to have worked, as an American woman won the lottery, and the house.
Other house lotteries pop up from time to time—the CHEO Foundation holds an annual lottery that includes a “dream home,” for example, and in some communities, lotteries are being used to help people afford houses. In Uniondale, N.Y., for example, the Uniondale Community Land Trust uses a lottery to sell houses in the town—though the house isn’t free. The final price tag is determined by the lottery winner’s income, though it’s expected to be about one-third of market value. And Newark, N.J. recently held a lottery to sell homes for just $1.
Fireflies
If you’ve never lived in an area where fireflies thrive—or if you live in an area where the fireflies have vanished—you know how cool they are. If you want the chance to see some truly spectacular firefly displays out in nature, however, you’ll need to enter a lottery to win the chance.
Every year some national parks hold lotteries to grant a limited number of people access to prime firefly viewing. The Great Smoky Mountains Firefly Viewing Lottery is held every year for dates in late May and early June when the bugs’ mating season is in high gear. Similarly, Congaree National Park hosts firefly events around the same time of year. Access to both events is granted through a lottery.
Keeping our natural wonders clean and well-maintained typically means restricting access. Too many visitors to national parks and protected wilderness areas leads to erosion, damage, and pollution. Since the best way to lessen the damage is to restrict the number of people with access, lotteries are often used to limit access in an equitable way. A few examples of outdoor activities you won’t be able to experience unless you win a lottery include:
The challenging Half Dome hike in Yosemite National Park requires a permit you can only get via lottery.
Rafting the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon can only be done if you get a permit via lottery.
Hiking the Left Form North Creek (aka the Subway Hike) canyon requires winning a seasonal lottery.
You can check recreation.gov for open lotteries if you don’t have a specific plan in mind; if something is managed via lottery, it’s probably pretty special.
Broadway shows
Broadway Shows remain an exciting experience for both native New Yorkers and tourists—and an expensive one. The average ticket price for a Broadway show is about $119, and nothing is getting any cheaper. Even if you live in or near New York, the cost of seeing a show could easily be $1,000 depending on how many people are going and other details.
If that’s too rich for your blood, you can always try the lottery. Individual shows frequently hold ticket lotteries (Hamilton is probably one of the best-known, offering $10 tickets to all performances), so doing a little research on the shows you want to see might reveal a chance to win. The site Broadway Direct maintains a listing of open lotteries you can enter as well.
This articles is written by : Nermeen Nabil Khear Abdelmalak
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