In 1446 a Flemish painter decided to organize a lottery, in which he used his paintings as prizes. His name was Jan Van Eyck. What do you think about the paintings as a prize in the lottery? We can agree if the painting will be a masterpiece of Van Gogh or Leonardo Da Vinci.
By 1465 Belgium had regular lotteries, which were invented to help in charity causes. Thanks to the money the organizer could help the poor, chapels and build the canals. All lotteries in Belgium were dedicated to the charity and in our opinion, it was the best sense of the lottery. Today most of the lotteries are organized to earn money and people play the lotto to win money, not to help somebody. We think that more lotteries these days should think about charity and support for the sports or people in need.
An interesting history of Polish lotteries – who invented the lottery in Poland?
Even Polish players think that the story of Polish lotteries started in 1957, when the "Totalizator Sportowy" was created and when this company decided to open the lottery "Totolotek" (today it is Polish Lotto). But this is not true. The first Polish lottery appeared already 300 years ago…
The first two draws of the lottery in Poland took place in 1748. The entire income from the game allocated to charity. At that time nobody thought about the lottery as a method to get rich or to sell as many tickets as it is possible to earn money on the players.