Early
modern history
France, 1539–1789
King Francis
I of France discovered the lotteries during his campaigns in Italy and
decided to organize such a lottery in his kingdom to help the state finances.
The first French lottery, the Loterie Royale, was held in 1539 and
was authorized with the edict of Châteaurenard. This attempt was a fiasco,
since the tickets were very costly and the social classes which could afford
them opposed the project. During the two following centuries lotteries in
France were forbidden or, in some cases, tolerated.
England, 1566–1826
An 1809 lottery drawing at Coopers' Hall in London
Although
the English probably first experimented with raffles and similar games of
chance, the first recorded official Play online lottery was
chartered by Queen Elizabeth I, in the year 1566, and was drawn in 1569.
This lottery was designed to raise money for the "reparation of the havens
and strength of the Realme, and towardes such other publique good workes".
Each ticket holder won a prize, and the total value of the prizes equalled the
money raised. Prizes were in the form of silver plate and other valuable
commodities. The lottery was promoted by scrolls posted throughout the country
showing sketches of the prizes.[3]
Thus,
the lottery money received was an interest free loan to the government during
the three years that the tickets ('without any Blankes') were sold. In later
years, the government sold the lottery ticket rights to brokers, who in turn
hired agents and runners to sell them. These brokers eventually became the
modern day stockbrokers for various commercial ventures. Most people could not
afford the entire cost of a lottery ticket, so the brokers would sell shares in
a ticket; this resulted in tickets being issued with a notation such as
"Sixteenth" or "Third Class".
Many
private lotteries were held, including raising money for The Virginia Company
of London to support its settlement in America at Jamestown. The English State
Lottery ran from 1694 until 1826. Thus, the English lotteries ran for over 250
years, until the government, under constant pressure from the opposition in
parliament, declared a final lottery in 1826. This lottery was held up to
ridicule by contemporary commentators as "the last struggle of the
speculators on public credulity for popularity to their last dying
lottery".
Early United States 1612–1900
An
English lottery, authorized by King James I in 1612, granted
the Virginia Company of London the right to raise money to help
establish settlers in the first permanent English colony at Jamestown,
Virginia.
Lotteries
in colonial America played a significant part in the financing of both private
and public ventures. It has been recorded that more than 200 lotteries were
sanctioned between 1744 and 1776, and played a major role in financing roads,
libraries, churches, colleges, canals, bridges, etc.[4] In the 1740s, the foundation of Princeton and Columbia
Universities was financed by lotteries, as was the University of Pennsylvania
by the Academy Lottery in 1755.
During
the French and Indian Wars, several colonies used lotteries to help finance
fortifications and their local militia. In May 1758, the Commonwealth
of Massachusetts raised money with a lottery for the "Expedition
against Canada".
Benjamin
Franklin organized a lottery to raise money to purchase cannon for the
defense of Philadelphia. Several of these lotteries offered prizes in the form
of "Pieces of Eight". George Washington's Mountain Road
Lottery in 1768 was unsuccessful, but these rare Play lottery
online tickets bearing Washington's
signature became collectors' items; one example sold for about $15,000 in 2007.
Washington was also a manager for Col. Bernard Moore's "Slave
Lottery" in 1769, which advertised land and slaves as prizes in The
Virginia Gazette.
At
the outset of the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress used lotteries to
raise money to support the Colonial Army. Alexander Hamilton wrote
that lotteries should be kept simple, and that "Everybody ... will be
willing to hazard a trifling sum for the chance of considerable gain ... and
would prefer a small chance of winning a great deal to a great chance of
winning little". Taxes had never been accepted as a way to raise public
funding for projects, and this led to the popular belief that lotteries were a
form of hidden tax.
At
the end of the Revolutionary War the various states had to resort to lotteries
to raise funds for numerous public projects.
German-speaking countries
The
first big lottery on German soil was held in 1614 in Hamburg.
In Austria the
first lottery was drawn in 1751, during the reign of Empress Maria
Theresia, and was named Lotto di Genova since it was based on
90 numbers.
