The History of the Lottery

Lotteries are found today in forty-two of the fifty United States with Arkansas being the latest state having their general election that approved lotteries in that state in 2008.  It was in the early 1800s that private lotteries became legal as that was the time when various patents were granted.  But before the legal lotteries began, there was illegal lotteries.   Mega Millions began in 1996 when the states of Georgia, Massachusetts, Illinois, Michigan and Maryland, but at that time they called it The Big Game.

Back in the 1970s, the scratchers were introduced and became a major source of revenue.  With the arrival of the internet, we then had websites offering lottery-style online games and some are offered to be played for free.  iwinweekly.com and the larger iWon.com are just two of the many websites out there today who offers 30% of the worldwide online lottery business. 

These services fall into question especially in the United States because the growth of technology is past the gambling laws for lottery play.  We are told that the public education system in the U.S. is supposed to benefit by the huge funds coming in from the lotteries.   But these donations don’t supplement an already lacking education system, they only replace funds that are already missing.