Christians and Lotteries and Gambling and Worry

Since the dawn of time, Man has believed in destiny. The term "lottery" derives from lotto, the Italian word for destiny, or fate.

The Modern Church has fought the development of the Lottery in the community along with the Casino. There has been many local wars in communities across Canada and the USA as people have resisted the idea of the effect of gambling on their communities.

As you read the list below you will see that the church has perhaps been more involved in developing the idea of Lotteries than we imagined. We developed a hatred for gambling during the period of 1820 - 1878 when the corruption of lotteries became a major problem... and it was the period also of the rise of the strongest holiness preaching/revivals in the modern church.

One thing we need to balance it all with is the scripture that refers to what Jesus is saying about money and worry... about what we are to do in every community - and in our lives. Please read this scripture before you read the amazing list below...

Do Not Worry Luke 12: 22- 34
22Then Jesus said to his disciples: "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.
23Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.
24Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!
25Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
26Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?
27"Consider how the lilies grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
28If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!
29And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it.
30For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them.
31But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.
32"Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom.
33Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys.
34For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Lotteries in the Ancient and Medieval World From a Canadian Perspective
Scholars disagree on who started the ancient tradition of lotteries, but there are references in the Bible. In Chapter 26 in the Book of Numbers, Moses used a lottery to award land west of the River Jordan.

c. 100-44 B. C.: Forms of lotteries date back to Caesar.

100 BC: The Hun Dynasty in China created keno. Funds raised by lotteries were used for defence, primarily to finance construction of the Great Wall of China.

1446: In one of the first recorded European lotteries, the widow of the Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck holds a raffle to dispose of his remaining paintings.

1465: Lotteries were held in Belgium to build chapels, almshouses, canals and port facilities.

1515: Six names were drawn for election to the Senate in Genoa, Italy; later the names were changed to numbers. The word "lottery" is believed to come from the Italian word "lotto", meaning destiny or fate.

1530: Florence, Italy held a "Number Lottery" with cash prizes.

1539: King Francis I of France authorized a lottery to replenish depleted funds in the treasury. Many of these funds had been flowing to foreign lotteries.

1567: Queen Elizabeth I establishes the first English state lottery. Prizes include cash, plate, and tapestry, with 400,000 tickets offered for sale.

1612: King James I of England (KJV Bible), by royal decree, created a lottery in London. The proceeds were used to aid the first British colony in America — Jamestown, Virginia. Interestingly, Anglican churches held two of three winning tickets for the first draw.

1700s: Many of our Founding Fathers played and sponsored lotteries. Some examples:
• Benjamin Franklin used lotteries to finance cannons for the Revolutionary War.• John Hancock operated a lottery to rebuild historic Faneuil Hall in Boston.• George Washington operated a lottery to finance construction of the Mountain Road, which opened westward expansion from Virginia.• Thomas Jefferson, $80,000 in debt at the end of his life, used a lottery to dispose of the bulk of his property.

1726: The Netherlands formed what is now the oldest lottery still in operation.

1753: A lottery is held in England for the establishment of the British Museum.

1759: At the urging of Casanova, Louis XV founded the Loterie Royale of the Military School (later on Saint-Cyr) in France. With the advent of this lottery, other lotteries were outlawed and the funds were to be used to reduce the State's debts. The King thus created a monopoly, which became the forerunner of the Loterie Nationale. The lottery was a keno-style game where players chose to bet on 1,2,3,4, or 5 numbers between 1 and 90.

1776: Lotteries were authorized to raise money for the Colonial Army.

1789: Lotteries were most active during the period following the adoption of the Constitution and prior to the establishment of effective means of local taxation and the wave of antilottery reform in the 1830s. Before 1790, America had only three incorporated banks. Therefore, lotteries were standard sources for public and private financing.

1790 to the Civil War: Fifty colleges, 300 schools and 200 churches were erected with lottery proceeds. Most notably, universities such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia were funded by lotteries.

1790 to 1860: Twenty-four of the 33 states financed civic improvements such as courthouses, jails, hospitals, orphanages, and libraries through lotteries.

1817: In Lower Canada (now Quebec), a law was enacted to formally ban all types of games. The law failed due to "a taste for gaming that existed in every class."

1820 through 1878: Corruption in privately operated lotteries becomes rampant. Many award fewer prizes than advertised or award no prizes at all. Governments find themselves unable to regulate these lotteries and as a result begin to consider prohibition.

1820s: New York passed the first constitutional prohibition of lotteries in the United States.

1856: The Act Concerning Lotteries expressly forbade all types of lotteries in Canada. This Act especially affected the French and Catholic clergy, who for close to a century had financed its good works with lottery proceeds.

1878: All states except Louisiana prohibit lotteries, either by statute or in their constitution.

1890: Congress bans all lottery materials from the mail.

1895: Congress bans all lottery materials from interstate commerce.

1905: The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the states' use of police powers to control gambling, effectively ending the Louisiana Lottery and other gambling in the U.S. No state was directly involved in the operation of a gambling enterprise, and lotteries were prohibited in most states by constitutional provisions for the next 60 years.
Modern Lotteries

1912: "Totalizator" was legalized, making racetracks the only legal betting place in Canada.

1917: The Queensland State Lottery of Australia was the first lottery to start operations in the 20th century.

1930: Irish Sweepstakes were launched with great success in the American and Canadian markets because of the abolition of lotteries in these countries.

1964: The New Hampshire Legislature created the state lottery, the first legal lottery in this century; it was labelled a "Sweepstakes" and tied to horse races to avoid the 70-year-old federal antilottery statutes.

1967: New York became the second state to attempt a lottery.

1969: Amendments to the Criminal Code of Canada legalized gambling and gave provinces the authority to operate lottery schemes and casinos and to license charitable or religious organizations to carry out specified lottery schemes.

1970: New Jersey started a state lottery. Tickets were 50 cents for a weekly drawing. Manitoba and Quebec began the first modern Canadian lotteries.

1971: Led by New Jersey, which in its first fiscal year sold close to $73 million in tickets, lottery sales nationwide surpassed the $100 million mark for the first time.

1971: Automated Wagering implemented the world's first online system in New Jersey.

1973: The Olympic Lottery Corporation of Canada received its charter and began selling tickets to provide funding for the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. The provinces of Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and Quebec, as well as the Northwest Territories, participated in the Olympic Lottery.

1973: Fiscal year sales for all lotteries surpassed $500 million.

1973: Scientific Games developed the first secure instant ticket.1974: Massachusetts offered the first scratch-off ticket.

1974: The provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia, plus the Yukon, formed the Western Canada Lottery Corporation.

1974-76: The Interprovincial Lottery Corporation was created through an act of the Ontario Legislature, and shortly after was federally incorporated with the western provinces.

1975: Federal law was amended to allow state lotteries to advertise on radio and TV.

1975: New Jersey introduced a statewide, online network of several hundred Clerk Activated Terminals (CATs) implemented by General Instrument (now Autotote).

1976: The Delaware State Lottery began taking bets on National Football League games (called the Delaware Sports Lottery). The NFL lost a legal battle to ban this type of wagering. The Sports Lottery was abandoned after 14 weeks.

1976: Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island formed the Atlantic Lottery Corporation.

1976: Lottery sales surpassed $1 billion for the first time.

1978: Both New York and Massachusetts introduced off-line lotto, a European player selection game in which the player selects six numbers between 1 and 30.

1978: Quebec joined the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation.

1979: The Atlantic provinces joined the Interprovincial Lottery Corporation, thus creating a true nationwide lottery in Canada.

1985: Tri-State Lotto, the first multi-state lottery, linked the state lotteries of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

1986: The Illinois Lottery introduced the first instant game with the concept of qualifying "entry" tickets for a grand prize drawing.

1986: North Dakota becomes the first state to vote against starting a state lottery.

1988: Keno was introduced by the New York Lottery.

1988: The Multi-State Lottery Association began with Oregon, Iowa, Kansas, Rhode Island, West Virginia and the District of Columbia as initial members.

1989: South Dakota became the first state in the U.S. to license and regulate video lottery games.

1989: The Oregon Lottery began accepting bets on NFL games, later adding other professional sports teams.

1991: The Virginia Lottery awarded the first instant ticket vending machine contract.

1996: The Big Game began with Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan and Virginia as initial members.

1998: The Multi-State Lottery Association recorded a world-record lottery jackpot of $295.7 million for its Powerball game.

1999: Maria Grasso of Boston wins a lump sum prize of $104 million in The Big Game, the largest prize ever won by a single individual.

1999: Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia operate a lottery in the U.S., while lotteries are legal in all Canadian provinces and territories. More than 100 foreign lotteries exist and many have operated for centuries. Some countries, like Mexico, France and Japan, have national lotteries. The World Lottery Association lists 63 member nations — one on every continent except Antarctica.

2000: The largest lottery jackpot in history is shared by winners from Michigan and Illinois. Both winners of the May 9 Big Game drawing elect to receive cash payments of approximately $90 million as their share of the $363 million (annuity) jackpot.


Summing It Up..
The history of lotteries can be traced back to Moses and the Bible. To award tracts of land west of the River Jordan, Moses used a lottery. It is also said that the construction of the Great Wall of China was financed by funds raised by lotteries, and that certain lottery forms date back to the time of Julius Caesar.

Lotteries flourished throughout Europe between the 15th and 17th centuries. In 1498, the Portuguese instituted a lottery to raise funds to help the underprivileged and meet the country’s monetary needs. Lotaria Nacional Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa, one of the world’s oldest continuously operating lotteries, was authorized in 1783 by Queen D. Maria Pia.

But the Portuguese were not alone. In 1727, the Netherlands formed another of the oldest lotteries still running. In those days, the main purpose for creating a lottery was to replenish a country’s depleted funds so that it could finance its wars and the construction of roads and buildings.

The history of lotteries in North America followed a more tortuous path. After lotteries served to fund the Virginia Company, which established the first permanent English settlement in 1607, and Harvard University, lotteries become more widespread and less regulated. With corruption in privately operated lotteries rampant between 1820 and 1878, the State of New York passed the first constitutional prohibition of lotteries in the United States, and in 1878 Canada and all states except Louisiana prohibited lotteries.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Queensland State Lottery of Australia was the first corporation to start lottery operations and the Irish Sweepstakes proved extremely popular in the American and Canadian markets because of the abolition of lotteries in both countries.

Finally, state lotteries were created, starting with New Hampshire, followed by New York and New Jersey, where the world’s first on-line system was implemented in 1971. The first scratch-off lottery ticket, The Instant Game, printed by the Dittler Brothers lottery division (acquired by OGT in 1997), was introduced in 1974 by the Massachusetts State Lottery. The game proved extremely successful, delivering something no other lottery game had ever offered – instant money.

Between 1974 and 1976, 13 different U.S. lotteries followed suit, launching instant games, and, in 1977, Loto-Québec became the first Canadian lottery to launch an instant game: La loterie des Québécois. This was considered the lottery industry’s first low-tier game and included $2, $5 and $50 prizes, as well as a draw for the top prize of $100,000.

By the 1980s, instant sales in the U.S. surpassed $1 billion and 16 states sold instant games. Canadian lotteries, concerned that instant games might cannibalize their passive games, began introducing hybrid games. South Australia cautiously introduced the first instant-scratch game in that country and this was followed by the Cyprus Government Lottery in 1979. These games were imitated by various European lotteries, although these countries also had concerns about their respective passive games.

Meanwhile, lotteries in the northeastern U.S. started to experiment with different ways to increase instant sales. These innovations included multiple-game marketing, new prize structures based on the Canadian model and less jackpot drawings for the top prize. The Massachusetts Lottery increased its payout from 50% to 60%, thus creating more churn as players began to reinvest their small winnings in the purchase of more tickets. As a result, the lottery’s instant sales doubled to $80 million. In 1985, this lottery’s sales tripled when it began direct distribution of tickets to retailers.

With instant sales thriving in the U.S., many state lotteries were launched between 1983 and 1990. By 1984, all Canadian lotteries offered instant games. Meanwhile, the Australian lotteries, which had incorporated many of the successful ideas developed in Canada and the U.S., revolutionized the industry with the concept of a true multi-price point strategy. Golden Casket (Queensland State Lottery, Australia) introduced successful $3, $4, $5 and $10 games and by 1990 offered a full mix of multiple-priced games that enjoyed tremendous success.

Working with customers in Australia and Canada, Oberthur introduced the multiple-price point strategy around the world. And in collaboration with the Atlantic Lottery Corporation, Oberthur worked on another innovation that may well sweep the industry – BINGO. The overwhelming success of the BINGO game led to other extended play games such as Crossword, Monopoly®, Solitaire and Maze.

Following the success of extended play games, the industry witnessed the successful reintroduction of WIN FOR LIFE games. This launch of an instant-win game with an annuity prize that could reach the multimillion-dollar range, set new sales records. In addition, lotteries successfully developed games with tie-ins with well-known consumer products and brands.
Instant games have come a long way since their introduction to the market almost 30 years ago. With research and strategic planning, we will certainly see this concept evolve in leaps and bounds during the decades ahead. Game providers and lotteries are more dedicated to innovation than ever before and new technologies should accelerate innovation worldwide if allowed by law.