Changing The World One Lottery At a Time


Lotteries are very old. However before we go into the history of the lottery I should explain where the name originates. The word originates from the Dutch - loterij - which is translated to mean "destiny".

The National Lottery in Britain may have only started in the mid 1990s but Britain has been having lotteries since Queen Elizabeth I as far back as 1567.Later in the early part of the 17th Century King James I of England ran a lottery to finance the building of the first British colony in America - Jamestown, Virgina. But it is believed that British lotteries may go back even further to Romany-Britain.

These days European countries have separate lotteries but also have one massive lottery but this is not the first instance of a European lotto draw. Jan Van Eyck had a lottery in 1446 to raise money and offering his paintings as prizes.

Canals, housing and many other city building projects were paid for in 1465 in Belgium by proceeds from lotteries.

In 1530 Florence, Italy, offered cash prizes in a lottery and in 1539 the King of France, Francis I, held a lottery to try to ease the countries growing debt.

In the Netherlands the Dutch lottery, that is still played to this day, dates back to 1726.

Lotteries existed in China for thousands of years dating back to times before Christ. This game was so popular that it is still played today as the modern Keno and proceeds from the original game were used to build The Great Wall of China.

This was not the beginning of the lottery however.

The lottery dates back to the Bible. In ancient biblical text we see evidence for lotteries taking place. The Book of Numbers clearly indicates that Moses was awarded land from a lottery win.