Most of us cogitate of lottery — with their cornucopia of kale ticket and nine - figure kitty — as creations of modern America . After being severely curtail by Union laws in the nineties , New Hampshire launch the first state - run lottery in 1964 . Since then , 42 other states have followed with most consecrate proceeds to education .
But lotteries themselves — some legal , some not — have been around for century , and have process as a popular method for raising funds for various lawsuit and public plant project . Here is a tilt of things that in all likelihood would never have been establish or accomplished without lotteries — the original crowdsourcing campaign .
1. THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA
Around 200 BCE , the Western Han Dynasty used a lottery to compensate for reparation to and expansion of the Great Wall . They created an early form of Keno called the “ white pigeon game , ” call for the chick that carried results from hamlet to village .
2. THE ROADS TO ROME
All roads may leave to Rome , but not all roads could be maintained without spare modification from the plebeians . After a polite warfare , Augustus found a drawing system to pay for mending of the damaged substructure .
3. VOLTAIRE’S ACADEMIC CAREER
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In the 1700s , a Gallic national lottery was created after the bond grocery collapsed . To encourage bond purchases , drawing tickets were awarded against a fractional percentage of their leverage . Francois-Marie Arouet and his supporter , mathematician Charles Marie de la Condamine , unwrap a numerical fault in the platform that allow them to buy large quantities of tickets as holders of cheap bonds . Before the government trance on , Voltaire made enough on his winning to be well while pursuing doctrine .
4. THE JAMESTOWN COLONY
You could say that America itself is the offspring of a drawing : to finance the privately - held Virginia Company of London , King James I grant the fellowship the authority to reserve a drawing to raise funds for a grand expounding . payoff were used to make Jamestown , the first English dependency in the New World .
5. THE IVY LEAGUE
How did these frontier colleges become the elite watch institutions of America ? During the 1700s , many of them raised money for Modern buildings or hall through lotteries ( some running them multiple times ) . Among the shoal that relied on games of luck to build their campuses were Yale , Harvard , Dartmouth , and the forerunners to Columbia and UPenn ( whose motto remains “ jurisprudence without moral are useless ” ) .
6. THE CONTINENTAL ARMY
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Running out of money to carry on its revolution against the Crown , the Continental Congress authorise a national lottery to raise cash for the fight . General Washington buy the first ticket . It fell far suddenly of its $ 10 million finish , but individual Colony did well financing their militias with drawing . Massachusetts earned $ 750,000 to put up bonuses for new volunteer .
7. FANEUIL HALL
Because the early states had trouble collecting taxes , and the bonds they issued were washy , many communities rely on legal gaming to pay for public needs . Proceeds compensate for canals in Pennsylvania , aquifers in Kentucky , bridges in Connecticut , and fire - fight equipment in St. Louis and Detroit . When Faneuil Hall , one of Boston ’s most iconic landmark , was rase by fire in 1761 , John Hancock helped coordinate a lottery for its Reconstruction Period .
8. WASHINGTON, D.C.
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Congress approved a $ 100,000 pot in the 1823 Grand National Lottery , net profit of which were to be put toward restoring and elaborate Washington , D.C. After the winners were drawn , the broker contracted to conduct the lottery absconded with all of the yield — never to be seen again . The distinguished prize success sued and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal politics had to pay up .
9. THE IRISH REPUBLICAN ARMY
Popular around the world between the 1930s and 1960s , the Irish Sweepstake ( yes , singular ) supposedly enhance money for Irish hospitals . Although illegal in lashings of country , the cops did n’t crack up down on ticket sellers , and the newsreels loved story about instant millionaires . The Sweep was run by former IRA leadership , who smuggle the outlawed tickets and hard currency into Ireland in the same gravy holder and airplane that held rifles and ammo for the Irish rebels . just the ticket vendor also skimmed money from sales to give to the IRA ; it ’s estimated only 10 percent of the hundreds of millions of dollars in Sweep proceeds ever give way to the hospital .
BONUS: THE ESTATE OF THOMAS JEFFERSON
Deeply in debt at the last of his biography , Jefferson petitioned the Virginia legislative assembly to allow him to incline a personal lottery with his effect and landholding as prize . Jefferson had always been a supporter of lotteries , line them as a tax “ laid on the willing only . ” But before he could run his lottery , Jefferson pop off and these items were instead sold at an estate of the realm sale .
For more on the first state - run away lottery in the United States , pick up Kevin Flynn’sAmerican Sweepstakes : How One Small State Bucked the Church , the Feds , and the Mob to Usher in the Lottery Age .
