The History of the Lottery

Whether you’re a lottery player or just curious about the odds, here are some things you should know.

The Short Story

Among the details of small-town American life depicted in this movie is an annual ritual known as the lottery, where villagers gather to hold a drawing to determine their fate for the year ahead—specifically, which farmers will be selected to harvest the corn crop. The locals cling to the tradition despite some nearby villages discontinuing the lottery, and Old Man Warner quotes an old proverb: “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.”

In the US, lotteries have become a source of revenue for state governments, with the principal argument being that it’s painless taxation, with players voluntarily spending their money instead of the government taking it by force. But the history of lotteries around the world has not been so straightforward.

The first lottery was probably organized by Roman emperors, as an amusement at dinner parties and Saturnalian celebrations, where tickets were distributed to guests and prizes given away by lot, generally articles of unequal value. The popularity of the lottery spread to England in the 16th century, and was used by colonial America to raise funds for paving streets and building wharves, and even for colleges. George Washington sponsored a lottery to recruit soldiers for the War of 1812. But he also worried that the practice was attracting gamblers and inducing them to spend their money on other forms of gambling, like horse racing.