As well as being a means of winning money through gambling for an individual, a lottery may also be an easy way to help towards funding numerous and diverse altruistic projects,which might otherwise be under funded or even abandoned, thereby helping society as a whole and helping to underpin its infrastructure.

The origin of today’s lotteries are very ancient, dating back to 100BC, during China’s Hun Dynasty, when the game of Keno was played, with monies going towards the defense of the State, helping with immensely costly projects such as the erecting of The Great Wall of China. The first lottery held in Europe was at the instigation of the Romans. What had begun as a private amusement for parties and gatherings amongst the nobility, was expanded and bettered during the reign of the Emperor Augustus Caesar, who cleverly used it almost as a stealth tax for the raising of large amounts of money to repair the infrastructure of the city.

It was a long time afterwords, in 1434, that a public lottery is recorded as having taken place in the town of Sluis in the Netherlands. About a decade later. lotteries, which were gaining in popularity around Flanders( an area comprised of parts of modern France, Holland and Belgium) began to give away cash prizes. These lotteries , which were often regarded as a rather less painful way of paying tax, appear to have been in aid of both the poor of the towns and maintaining the towns defenses. In Belgium, in 1465, lotteries are down as a matter of record as being held to raise revenue to help in the construction of almshouses, chapels, ports and canals.

In the West, there was great appetite for a lottery. Late in the 16th century, Elizabeth initiated the original English state lottery. That this was a great popular success can be seen in the fact that four thousand tickets were sold for the original lottery, with the prizes given away tapestries, plate and cash. After this, the government thought it expedient to sell the rights to brokers, who would then hire agents all over the country to sell on the tickets o the great unwashed. The lottery continued until 1826, when Parliament decided to discontinue it.

Lottery fever gripped the world, with the invention of many different forms of the game, played by different peoples the world over. However, this popularity led inevitably to the corruption of the noble ideals of the first lotteries, with money comes the temptation to the criminal nature. Some private lotteries substituted low value prizes to those advertised, or even refused to hand over any prizes aat all. The time inevitably came when Canada and The United States prohibited the playing of lotteries altogether. Where they were still allowed, laws and regulations were implemented to ensure the fair playing and winning of lotteries.

Good practice dictates that today’s modern lotteries should apportion some of the ticket sales to charitable causes and institutions. Today it is easier than ever to lay a bet or buy a ticket to a game of chance, with the arrival of online betting sites.

Need some lotto tips, find out how I win at National Lottery Results Checker.