It’s Time to Take a Look at the History of the Lottery

Sir William Cecil was the secretary to the Queen in the year 1568. He conceived the idea of doing a grand lottery so that they could pay for the ships for the Navy. It also meant that they could keep up with the naval dockyards too. Scotland of course, was independent at that time and did not like the idea of gambling.

The Current Lottery

The idea of the lottery had surfaced now and again, and it wasn’t until 1984 that the very first lottery was legalised. The private sector plan was to raise funds for the NHS and this made it to fruition in the 80s but the plans were soon cancelled by Thatcher’s government. John Major, her successor, disagreed, and said that it would not be used to fund various government projects. He said that it would in fact raise money for good causes instead. He drove the operation and since then it has really made its way onto the mainstream market.

Casinos and the Lottery

If you look at the surge in the number of online casinos that are out there, then you will soon see that this is somewhat tied to the lottery as well. As the national lottery started to gain traction, it would seem that online casinos did as well. This is especially the case with sites such as the Netbet casino. In the year 1995, scratch cards were released with the first midweek draw being in 1997. Thunderball then started in 1999. The 1000^th millionaire was then created in 2000 and ever since then, the number has risen to create 5500 millionaires. In the year 2002, the National Lottery was then rebranded as being just the Lotto. The Camelot company then chose to team up with the required companies in Spain and France so that they could create the Euromillions.

Failures of the Lottery

There have been a lot of jackpot winners who have since blown a lot of their money. Of course, the television shows have gone now, and a lot of games have come and gone too. If you remember the Daily Play, the Dream Number or even the Lotto Extra, then you will soon see that these are not active anymore. There are many people who love the lottery though and there are a ton of success stories out there too.

Lottery Success

Cynics could well say that the success of the lottery can be put down to the fact that it has helped to fund the famous London Olympics and on top of this, it has also paid for a lot of elite sports as well. It has helped to strengthen the country and it has also helped a lot when it comes to people’s excitement over weekly television. It’s exciting to see how things have changed over time but right now it would seem that the lottery is still just as fun as ever with millions to be won every single month.