Winning the lottery has a long and ancient history. The term “lottery” arises from the Italian “lotto”, meaning fate or destiny. Many lottery games in the English speaking world are referred to as lotto games. How exactly to win the lottery has been a worldwide question for hundreds, even thousands of years.
Ancient Lotteries
Lotteries have a historical, venerable and somewhat checkered history. There are lots of biblical references to the drawing of lots to award ownership and in the Book of Numbers, Chapter 26, Moses runs on the lottery to award land west of the River Jordan. In the New Testament, Roman soldiers drew lots to choose 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, intended as a perimeter defense. Winning the lottery was less important than defending the country.
Origin of Modern Lotteries
The very first recorded European lottery was held in 1446 by the widow of the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck to dispose of his remaining paintings. Winning this lottery might have given you a prize worth mega millions today!
Encyclopedia Britannica states that the lottery as we realize it dates back again to 15th century France where it was utilized by individual towns to improve money for strengthening the town’s defenses (Europe has a strong tradition of citizens considering themselves as owned by an area rather than a state or even a country, for example, a citizen would consider him or herself as a Roman, as opposed to an Italian.) จีนเช้าย้อนหลัง King Francis I of France allowed lotteries to use from 1520, and the first municipal lottery to supply money as a prize was La Lotto de Firenze, run by the town of Florence in 1530. Other cities in Italy soon followed suit.
In the centre 18th century, a notable event occurred in France. Due to the prospect of fixing the results in 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. All the lotteries in France were outlawed. The lottery was a Keno style game, where players could select 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 numbers between 1 and 90. (Incidentally, Casanova owned a pastime in the newest lottery and became wealthy consequently, but sold his interest shortly afterwards and lost the proceeds through unwise investments; sounds the same as some modern lottery winners, doesn’t it?)