Origins of the lottery

It is possible that lotteries actually originated during Bible times albeit not in the form of winning prizes although there is some contention among Biblical scholars about this. However, the Book of Numbers in the Old Testament states that Moses was awarded land near the River Jordan after playing a local lottery. Lotteries are not mentioned much in historical writings until the period of the Chinese Han Dynasty between 205 and 187 B.C.E. where Emperor Cheung Leung invented the Chinese Lottery. This game has survived till today in the game known as Keno. The Great Wall of China was built with profits from the Chinese Lottery. As early as the second millenium B.C.E., there are written references to a type of lottery with the Chinese "The Book of Songs" referring to a game of chance as "the drawing of wood" which seems to describe the drawing of lots. "The Iliad" by Homer refers to lots being placed into Agamemon's helmet in order to determine who would fight Hector. The first known European lottery occurred during the time of the Roman Empire as a form of entertainment at dinner parties. Each guest would receive a ticket and prizes would consist of fancy items such as dinnerware. Every ticket holder would win prizes although this type of lottery was simply a distribution of gifts by wealthy nobleman during Saturnalian revelries. The earliest record of a lottery selling tickets is the lottery organized by the Roman Emperor, Augustus Caesar. The funds went to repair the City of Rome and winners were given prizes in the form of articles of unequal value.

Origins of the public lottery

The earliest public lottery on record took place in the Dutch town of Sluis in 1434. The first recorded lotteries to sell tickets with real money prizes were held in the Low Countries during 1443-1449. Towns in Belgium, Holland and France held public lotteries to raise money for town fortifications and to help the poor. The Dutch were the first to shift the lottery to solely real money prizes and base prizes on odds with about 1 in 4 tickets winning a prize. The lottery proved to be immensely popular and was hailed as a popular form of taxation with the money going to support poor people, to construct defense works for towns and buy free sailors from slavery in the Arab countries. The English word "lottery" stems from the Dutch word "loterij" which is derived from the Dutch noun "lot" meaning fate. The Dutch state-owned staataloterij is the oldest lottery still running. Although the English probably experimented with raffles and other games of chance prior to this, the first recorded official lottery was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I in 1566 although was only drawn three years later, during which time it acted as a loan to the government. The English lottery was designed to raise money for "the reparation of the havens and strength of the Realme, and towards such other publique good workes". Every ticket holder would win prizes with the total value of the prizes equaling the money raised. The prizes were silver plate and other valuable commodities and the lottery was promoted by posting scrolls throughout the country showing sketches of the prizes. The government later sold the lottery ticket rights to brokers who hired agents and runners to sell them. As many people could not afford the whole cost of a lottery ticket, the brokers would sell shares in a ticket which resulted in lottery tickets being issued with notations such as "Third Class". The English State Lottery ran from 1694 until 1826 when the government came under pressure from the opposition in parliament and therefore declared the final lottery. Next:The lottery in early America 1612-1900