The first national lottery was decreed on October 15, 1757.
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Currently there are all kinds of lottery games you can play, the most popular being Powerball and Mega Millions, but have you ever wondered who invented this game?
It all started in France in 1757, where the first state-sponsored lottery was held thanks to an idea by Giacomo Casanova.the most famous seducer in history.
Casanova became famous thanks to the publication of his biography, in which he tells all his adventures, especially his love conquests.
Casanova traveled and lived throughout Europe, was well educated and was fluent in several languages. Actually he was Italian, but he wrote his biography in French.
Aside from having a knack for making women fall in love, Casanova revealed in his biography that he was a spy, librarian, gambler, mathematician, and businessman.
Being both a gambler and a mathematician, Casanova came up with the idea of creating a lottery game administered by government agencies convinced the King of France to sponsor a game to raise funds to build a military school in Paris.
Thus, on October 15, 1757, the Loterie de l’École Militaire was decreed.
Like today, the numbers were chosen from a rotating ballot box. This first lottery in France raised the equivalent of 2 million francs (about US$310,438) by today’s standards, a huge sum for the time.
According to Smithsonian Magazine Casanova made a great fortune developing this national lottery system in Paris, although he later squandered all the money on London casinos and brothels..
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