History Of Lottery In The USA

King James I of England approved the first English lottery in 1612. This approval gave the Virginia Company of London the right to raise money by selling lotteries. In this way, the lotteries were first introduced in the British colonies of America and they soon gained popularity. The money collected by the sale of lotteries was then used to pay the winners of the lotteries and the rest of the money was used to construct buildings and improve the British colonies in America.

Later, more lotteries were permitted in the US and according to some records; more than 200 lotteries were played by the people in colonies between 1744 and 1780. These lotteries played a crucial role in financing the construction of bridges, roads, churches, and colleges. As a matter of fact, the University of Pennsylvania, Columbia University, and Princeton University were created by using the money from the sale of lotteries. After this, the money from the sale of lotteries was used in the American Revolution.

The money from the lotteries was also used to finance wars. Normally, money gathered from the taxation is used to finance such developments and wars but since in colonized societies taxation was a sensitive issue, thus lotteries were used for achieving the same objectives. A huge number of people used to participate in lotteries, as they were willing to risk their few bucks in the hope of winning big.

Lottery in the USA was popular even after the American Revolution but then they started to gain negative reputation in many states because of the scandals and mismanagement. The most notorious lottery in the USA among many others was Louisiana State Lottery. It was regarded as ‘Golden Octopus’ as it was played by people all over America. You may wonder how the heck was that possible. Well, the Louisiana State Lottery used the US mail to deliver tickets for the lottery in the USA. The officials of the Louisiana State Lottery were corrupt and used to bribe legislators for their own interest.

Finally, in 1890, President Harrison instructed the legislators that strong action should be taken against such malpractices. Immediately the US Mails was instructed not to carry lottery tickets from one state to the other. Then in 1900, all sorts of lotteries were banned in the US. Then, after some years, lotteries again started to emerge but this time they were created by respective states and they had a mission to support public educational institutions or other public sector development projects. Around 90% of the money spent on buying the lottery is again channeled back to the community in the form of developments in the community.