Is playing lottery forbidden in Islam?

All perfect praise be to Allah, The Lord of the Worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allah, and that Muhammad is His slave and Messenger.

By all means, it is completely forbidden for a Muslim to take part in lottery, since it is a form of gambling, which Allah, The Exalted, has forbidden in the Quran and mentioned it within the context of the greatest prohibitions.

Allah Says (what means): {O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful. Satan only wants to cause between you animosity and hatred through intoxicants and gambling and to avert you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. So will you not desist?} [Quran 5: 90-91]

So, it is your duty to behave like the Companions who replied while listening to the above verse: “We have abstained, we have abstained.”

In addition, prohibitions such as Riba (usury and/or interest), gambling, and so on, are forbidden at all times and in all places; i.e. different situations and changes of time do not abrogate the Sharee'ah’s rulings, nor restrict them.

Allah knows best.