Lottery History – Creation & Evolution of Lotto
Saying “lottery history” summarizes a history of a game dating back over 2000 years. We will add a few tips for winning the lottery and what to do after that. Find out where the first lottery draws were made and how the game changed until reaching its present-day form.
What Is the Lottery History?
The history of the lottery is an incredible explorational journey through the development of the most popular gambling form worldwide. We have gathered interesting facts about the lotto game creation through the centuries. Read on to find out which countries were the first to offer lottery games to their citizen.
What is a Lottery?
Find “lottery” in the dictionary, and you will see that it means “the means of raising money by selling numbered tickets and giving prizes to the holders of numbers drawn at random”. However, in the mind of every lottery ticket holder, the lottery means a ticket to easy life. Before we enter into the historical details, we would like to give you a few tips on how to get a chance of winning the lottery:
- 🎱 Choose a Lottery Game
- 🍀 Pick Lucky Numbers
- 🎫 Buy Ticket & Keep It
- 🔒 Keep the Ticket Safe
- 👀 Check the Draw Results
- 🥂 Get You Prize
Those tips on winning the lottery apply to any type of raffle, keno, lotto, and similar games of chance. To give more details would mean to go into details in each of them. This is a fine topic for another article, but we focus on the evolution of the lottery games over time.
How Was the Lottery Invented?
Wagering and betting on different subjects have existed since the dawn of time. People bet on successes or failures in different endeavours, so it is impossible to pinpoint when wagering began. On the other hand, there is always written information when rulers and popular faces are involved. That is how we know who first invented the lotteries and what games they played.
| ⌛ Time Period | 🎱 Lottery |
|---|---|
| 🏺 Ancient Greece & Athenian Democratic Lotteries | An interesting example is the Athenians, who used a “sortition” to select their government officials in the 6th century BC. This democratic election avoided corruption or political influences and added drama to the selection. All winners became jurors or members of the Athens’ citizen council for the next term. |
| ⛩️ Ancient China & the First Keno Games | Ancient Chinese records from 205-187 BC state that the Han Dynasty needed finances to build the Great Wall. They used the ancient Keno game known as “baige piao” (meaning “white pigeon ticket”) or “the drawing of wood” game. |
| 🏛️ Ancient Rome – Lottery Entertainments for the Rich | Ancient Romans held raffles and draws similar to lotteries as entertainment during the feasts. Upon arrival, each party guest received a ticket with a number, and later during the night every drawn number received a present. The Roman Emperor Augustus Caesar was the first who sold the raffle tickets to his guests. Another interesting lottery draw history event was the Roman “decimation” of soldiers (a form of punishment). |
“When did lotto start?” is the most important question with an incredibly unbelievable answer. Above you saw a few of the most ancient examples of raffles. The exact year of a game that resembles lottery as we play today it is unknown, but the Midle Ages and the modern times we describe below show how the game reshaped through the centuries until present day’s best online lotto and sites to bet on lottery.
Lotto Games in the Medieval Times & the Renessaince
The history of the lottery in Europe skips a few centuries because, after the fall of the Roman Empire, the continent was a battleground. The following Dark Ages also did not keep many records of entertainment and fun activities because they were considered a sin most of the time. The rise of gambling and lotteries began in the Middle Ages and developed during the Renaissance. Here are several countries with interesting lotteries:
Empress Maria Theresia’s Lottery in Austria & Germany
Hamburg, 1614 was where the first big German lottery was held. During the reign of Empress Maria Theresia, Austrians also could try their luck. In 1751, the 90 numbers of the Lotto di Genova brought prizes to the first Austrian lottery winners. The history of lottery numbers shows that even today, German and Austrian lotteries have 90 numbers, double the number of lotto games worldwide.
The French National Lottery
The history of lottery results shows that the first lottery in France was held in the 16th century, but it took about a century for the games of luck to draw attention. In 1539, King Francis I of France held Loterie Royale, the first lottery “wheel of fortune” was used, and the winners were selected from a hopper by a blindfolded child.
Like its predecessors, the lotto was a way to fill the treasury without raising taxes and funding different projects. King Louis XVI founded a national lottery and, in this way, monopolised the industry. The lotto was suspended during the French Revolution and abolished in 1836 to avoid exploitation of the poor. In the 1930s, the France state lottery reappeared.
Lottery in the Italian City-States
In the lottery history, we read that Golden Ambrosian Republic (Milan) held the first lottery in Italy on 9 January 1449 to finance the war against the Republic of Venice. During the 16th century, every Renessaince Italy city like Florence, Venice, and Rome had its lottery. Winners got small gifts, jewels, or cash, and once again, the government took the ticket money.
Genoa followed the Ancient Greek example and used a lottery to choose public officials randomly. The draw was of 90 candidates, and five were selected. The citizen wagered on their favourite, and the winner took the prize pool. Genoa authorities saw potential in this and took over the wagering control.
The Oldest Running Lottery
We can find many games in the lottery raffles history that excited players and vanished in a blink. The first recorded Low Counties (Belgica, Netherlands, and Flanders) lotteries are from the 15th century. The oldest running lottery – the Dutch’s Staatsloterij was created in the 17th century to collect charity money and still exists.
Queen Elizabeth I National Lottery
The lotto history is full of information about the first national lotteries of different countries. Another interesting example was Queen Elizabeth I national lottery dates back to 1566. The tickets costed 10 shillings, 10,000 ticket holders received a prize, and the biggest winner got 5000 pounds sterling in cash and presents.
With the colonisation of the New World, lottery games spread in the Americas. In 1612, Virginia Company of London received authorisation by King James I to use lotto games to raise funds to help the new settlers in Jamestown, Virginia. Even though the parliament banned the first English State Lottery in 1826, the colonists continued draws held by private citizens.
The Louisiana State Lottery Company
The history of winning lottery numbers is full of examples of lucky numbers, charms, and juju that brought fine prizes. The lotto draws were run by popular figures like Benjamin Franklin and George Washington and lasted from the 17th century until the late 19th century before being banned because of moral opposition and scandals.
The Louisiana State Lottery Company, the “Octopus”, was one of the few privately owned lotteries established after the Civil War. The nickname “Octopus” was given because the New Orleans-based lottery sold mail-order tickets across the country. This lotto game was crooked business practices, so in 1890s the Congress banned it.
Not all lottery draws were happy and joyful events. In The Virginia Gazette, we read about Col. Bernard Moore’s “Slave Lottery” held in 1769. This is one of the dire examples of human degeneration and depravity where the awarded prizes included land and enslaved people.
Modern Lottery Games
We will end the lottery history article with a few words about the modern lottery games. The familiar games with numbers that you know became popular in the 1800s. Today, the games are a combination of large prizes for the lucky winners and tax or commission on the prize distributed for the benefit of the public and charity organisations.
An amazing example of a lottery that started centuries ago and continues until today is the Spanish Christmas Lottery “El Gordo” (meaning “Fat One”). The first lottery draw was in 1763, and in the following centuries, it became a tradition.
The modern lotteries worldwide are one of the most affordable and accessible wagering games. People can buy tickets from kiosks, shops, and online at websites. Wherever you choose to buy a ticket, rest assured that the rules guarantee fair play, full prize payoffs, and a place in the history of lottery winners. You can also join syndicates by joining reviewed sites like Jackpot.com. Here are some examples of popular games today:
- Powerball
- Mega Millions
- EuroMillions
- LOTTO MAX
- LOTTO 6/49
Speaking of big prizes, the newest history of the lottery holds the biggest lotto wins ever. During the latest years, the prizes reach hundreds of millions in different currencies. This is amazing news for the lucky players who constantly break the lotto history records. We only recommend that they spend the piles of cash wisely and not lose them all.
Lottery History Q&A
The lottery history starts thousands of years ago and will probably continue for thousands of years in the future. There are many interesting questions to be answered on the matter, and we selected five of them. Check the answers and follow the links to the designated section in the article, where you will find more information.
1️⃣ Why was the lottery invented?
As a lottery history summary, we can say that most of the lotteries were invented as a method to raise money for war or state project funding. In other cases, raffles and lottery games were fun activities for the rich. Our article listed many different lotto games through times and which countries they were popular in.
2️⃣ When were lottery tickets invented?
The history of the lottery shows us that the first lottery games had the same components as the modern lotto games. The lottery tickets may sound like a new addition, but they have existed since paper creation. Because paper was highly valuable back then, the first lottery tickets were wooden or rock tokens with numbers or names.
3️⃣ Which are the oldest lotteries?
The lotto history begins over two millennials ago in Ancient China. The creation of the lottery was a necessity of a way to fund government construction projects like the Great Wall. Alternative uses of lotto games were Ancient Romans' lotto-type selection of soldiers to be punished or the Ancient Greeks' selection of magistrates through a chance draw.
4️⃣ Where does lotto money come from?
In the lottery history, we can find resources showing that lottery money came from the people. The royals running Medieval and Renaissance lotteries continued the tradition of selling tickets to the commoners to fill up the treasury. The lucky holder of a winning ticket received a prize, while the rest of the prize pool went for government projects.
5️⃣ Why do lottery winners go public?
There is no date showing when did lotto start announcing the winners. In the past, this happened right during the public draw, and the winner immediately received the prize. The modern lottery games have much bigger prizes and spread over vast territories. This allows the winners to stay private or announce their luck.