Lotto is a game of chance. You buy a ticket with a line of numbers on it. Later, numbers are picked at random; if yours match, you win money or a prize. In news and on shop signs it is the numbers-for-money game, close to what many people also call “the lottery”. It is not a skill game: the point is luck, and most tickets win nothing. Though actually, people stretch the word. Some families also say lotto for a children’s matching game with pictures on cards, nearer to bingo. That is not the money game. The word came into English from Italian. In everyday talk it can sound quite ordinary, not grand.