Lotto is a state-run game of chance in which players pick numbers. Play the lotto, lotto numbers, win the lotto.
The odds are so long that buying a ticket the day of the draw and buying it a week early make no measurable difference to your chance of dying first. The Italian is the same word as lot, meaning something decided by chance.
1nounlottoA state-run game of chance in which players pick numbers on a ticket and hope they match the ones drawn.
“He buys a lotto ticket every Saturday, always picking his children's birthdays.”
lotto is a game.
Italian lotto means a lot or share; lot is a doublet.
Italian
lotto
English, today
lotto
Borrowed from Italian lotto. a doublet of lot.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA