It was invented basing on bets in Shipping Companies, about if the oversee shipping reach the haven or not. Insurances are in essence bets over determinated risks or issues and they never lose. You pay an quote through your whole life for something, eg your health and in case you have an accident, they pay the costs (or not or only a part, at least in the US), if not, you had payed for nothing, never they pay what their users had apported with their quotes in a lot of years. They always gain a lot of money with it, because of this there are a lot of insurance companies of any kind. it’s a gold mine. In the Lottery it’s also an risk which you pay, you can pay regulary for the Lotto and you can have luck and you gain some money, or bad luck and buying Lotto your whole life and never gain a cent. In essence the same as in a insurance, paying through your whole life and never need it. Not so different, the risk is always for you, not for the company, these always pay only a small fraction of their incomming,