When, as is usual, a proportion of the money an individual spends on a lottery ticket,goes in part towards helping to fund a charitable project, gambling becomes much more than one person winning or losing. It transforms into something far more altruistic, charitable and beneficial to society as a whole. This happens more and more often these days.
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.
During the medieval period was the first public lottery held in modern times recorded as taking place in the town of Sluis,in the Netherlands, in 1434. The first time that money rather than prizes was regularly given away was in about 1444, in Flanders - an area now covered by France, Holland and Belgium. These lotteries are reputed to have been held for the benefit of both the poor and the towns fortifications. These lotteries were regarded, especially by the Dutch, as a form of taxation, albeit in a somewhat disguised form.It is recorded that in 1465, in Belgium, lotteries were held to raise money for the construction of almshouses, port facilities 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.
Different forms of the lottery were invented and took hold, with lotteries played almost universally worldwide in some fashion or other. Soon, however, the initial noble intentions of the first lotteries were submerged in a sea of greed and corruption. Many private lotteries did not give the prizes as advertised, but maintained the right to substitute inferior prizes; inn the worst cases, no prizes were ever handed over to the unfortunate winners. The United States and Canada eventually banned all lotteries, and prohibiting all such. In time, however, new laws and regulations were decreed to ensure the fair running of the new generation of lotteries and games of chance.
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.
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