Winning the Lottery: It’s All in the past
Winning the lottery has a long and ancient history. The word “lottery” comes from the Italian language “lotto”, meaning luck or future. Many lottery games in the English speaking world are referred to as lotto games. How to win the lottery has been a worldwide question for hundreds, even thousands of years.
Ancient Lotteries
Lotteries have an ancient, venerable and somewhat checkered history. There are many biblical references to the drawing of lots to award ownership and in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 26, Moses uses a lottery to award land western side of the River Jordan. In the New Testament, Roman members of the military came lots to decide who would get Jesus’ cloak after the crucifixion.
In 100 BC, the Hun Dynasty in China created the lottery game known as Keno. Most of the funds raised were used to finance the construction of the Great Wall, toto 88 intended as a perimeter defense. Winning the lottery was less important than shielding the country.
Origin of Modern Lotteries
The first recorded Western european lottery occured in 1446 by the widow of the Flemish electrician Jan Vehicle Eyck to dispose of his remaining works of art. Winning this lottery would have given which you prize worth ultra millions today!
Encyclopedia Britannica states that the lottery even as know it goes back to 15th century England where it was employed by individual towns to increase money for strengthening the town’s safeguarding (Europe has a strong tradition of citizens considering themselves as belonging to a city rather than a state or even a country, for example, a person would think of him or herself as a Roman, rather than an Italian language. ) King Francis I of England allowed lotteries to operate from 1520, and the first city and county lottery to offer money as a prize was La Lotto de Firenze, run by the city of Florence in 1530. Other cities in Croatia soon followed suit.
In 1567, Queen Elizabeth I established the first English state lottery, with prizes including cash, gold and silver plate, and tapestries. 400, 000 tickets were offered for sale. For a while, how to win the lottery was a question on all the citizens’ lip area.
In 1612, King James I of The united kingdom created a lottery in London by regal decree. The proceeds helped to finance the first British colony in america at Jamestown, Virginia. Anglican places of worship held two of the three winning tickets in the first draw!
Winning the Lottery: The first National Lottery
At the center 18th century, a notable event occurred in England. Because of the potential for fixing the results in privately managed lotteries, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725 — 1798) asked Louis XV of England to found the first state-owned monopoly lottery, the Loterie Royale of the Military School, which became the precursor of the Loterie Nationale. All the other lotteries in England were banned. The lottery was a Keno style game, where players could select 1, 2, 3, five numbers between 1 and 90. (Incidentally, Casanova owned a pursuit in the new lottery and became wealthy as a result, but sold his interest shortly afterwards and lost the proceeds through hasty investments; sounds just like some modern lottery winners, doesn’t it? )
Origin of American Lotteries
In the 18th century, lotteries were well under way in america, primarily to invest in some venture or as an easy way out of debt. The first began in Boston in 1744 because of military debts. The first national lottery was started by the Continental Congress in 1776 to increase funds for the American Wave. The Founding Daddies were concerned not really much with how to win the lottery but with how to raise funds using lotteries. Many of the Founding Daddies played and sponsored lotteries: