Is buying lottery tickets prohibited gambling, and what is said to someone who claims he only gambles rarely?

Lottery operations are forbidden by the Quran, Sunnah, and scholarly consensus. They are a form of gambling and maysir (games of chance), and it is absolutely impermissible to engage in them, regardless of whether the money obtained from them is spent on charitable causes or not. This is because they are impure and forbidden by the general religious evidence; the earnings obtained from them must be abandoned. This falls under the prohibited maysir that Allah Almighty associated with idol worship and alcohol, and its sin is greater than its benefit. Even if it is said that one gambles rarely, committing something forbidden is not justified by its infrequent repetition.