A game of chance with only paltry-amount payout-prizes.
If you hafta buy dozens or hundreds of tickets before you win da LOTtery, said winnings may feel merely like you played da LITTLEry.
A better name for what playing Powerball or Megabucks actually ends up being 99% of the time... if you ever win at all, it's generally just a LITTLE money, not a LOT. :P
If they'd call it a LITTLEry instead of a LOTtery, that would be more honest advertising for the vast majority of the players; it's said that your more likely to get struck by lightning that win the big jackpot.