A Brief History of Lottery Tickets

A Brief History of Lottery Tickets

Lottery tickets have a long and colorful history. The first lottery tickets known are keno slips from the Han Dynasty in China. During the Roman Empire lotteries were used for entertainment during lavish dinner parties. The earliest recorded public lottery was organized by the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus and the proceeds from the lottery were used for repairs in the city of Rome. One of the first European lotteries took place in the Dutch town of Sluis in the 14th century. This early lottery was the first public lottery to offer cash prizes and proved very popular. Lotteries spread across what is now known as the Netherlands and Belgium. Many of these early lotteries used the proceeds for charitable purposes. In the Netherlands lotteries were regarded as a painless kind of taxation.

Ticket based lo0tteries quickly spread to England Queen Elizabeth I chartered the first public lottery in 1566. Later the English government sold the right to sell lottery tickets to brokers who hired employees to sell the lottery tickets. Believe it or not these early lottery brokers were the forerunners of today's stock brokers.