Winning the Lottery: It’s All in the Past

lottery

Winning the lottery has a long and ancient history. The term”lottery” comes from the Italian”lotto”, meaning fate or destiny. Many lottery games from the English speaking world are referred to as lottery games. How to win the lottery has been a world broad question for centuries, even thousands of years.

Historical Lotteries

Lotteries have an early, cosmopolitan and somewhat 먹튀폴리스 history. There are lots of biblical references to the drawing of lots to award possession and at the Book of Numbers, Chapter 26, Moses uses a lottery to award land west of the River Jordan. In the New Testament, Roman soldiers drew lots to decide who would get Jesus’ cloak following 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 building of the Great Wall, intended as a perimeter defense. Winning the lottery was less significant than protecting the nation.

Origin of Modern Lotteries

The first recorded European lottery has been held in 1446 from the widow of the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck to dispose of the remaining paintings. Winning this lottery would have given you a prize worth mega millions now!

Encyclopedia Britannica says the lottery as we know it goes back to 15th century France in which it was utilized by respective towns to raise cash for strengthening the city’s defenses (Europe has a strong tradition of taxpayers contemplating themselves as belonging to a city as opposed to a state or even a country, by way of example, a citizen would consider him or herself as a Roman, instead of an Italian.) King Francis I of France enabled lotteries to operate from 1520, and the first civil lottery to provide money for a prize was La Lotto de Firenze, run from the city of Florence in 1530. Other cities in Italy soon followed suit.

In 1567, Queen Elizabeth I created the first English state lottery, with prizes including cash, gold and silver plate, and tapestries. 400,000 tickets have been offered for sale. For a while, how to win the lottery was a matter on all citizens’ brow.

The profits helped to finance the first British colony in the united states at Jamestown, Virginia. Anglican churches held among the three winning tickets at the first draw!

Winning the Lottery: The First National Lottery

At the middle 18th century, a prominent event occurred in France. Because of the potential for fixing the results of privately operated lotteries, Giacomo Girolamo Casanova (1725 – 1798) persuaded Louis XV of France to found the first state-owned monopoly lottery, the Loterie Royale of the Military School, which became the forerunner of the Loterie Nationale. The rest of the lotteries in France were outlawed. The lottery was a Keno style game, in which gamers could pick 1, 3, 2, 4 or 5 numbers between 1 and 90. (Incidentally, Casanova owned an interest in the brand new lottery and became rich as a result, but sold his interest soon afterwards and dropped the profits through unwise investments; seems like some modern lottery winners, doesn’t it?)

From the 18th century, both lotteries were under way in America, primarily to fund a few venture or as a way out of debt. The first began in Massachusetts in 1744 due to military debts. The very first national lottery has been started by the Continental Congress in 1776 to increase funds for the American Revolution. The Founding Fathers were concerned not so much with how to win the lottery but with how to raise funds using lotteries.

Benjamin Franklin used lotteries to finance cannons for the Revolutionary War.

George Washington financed structure of the Mountain Road, which started growth West of Virginia, by operating a lottery.

Thomas Jefferson, who had been $80,000 in debt at the end of his life, used a lottery to eliminate most of his house. Winning this lottery would have given you a priceless piece of American tradition!

John Hancock operated a lottery to finance the rebuild of historic Faneuil Hall in Boston.

In addition, people lotteries helped construct several American universities, including Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Brown and Dartmouth. Winning these lotteries was a significant contribution to the future of American education.