8 Lucky Stars

From: Buy Your Ticket To Lottery Knowledge Here:

1) Lotteries of yore (They’re older than you think!)

Lotteries have been around as long as arithmetic. According to the Bible, God ordered Moses to use a lottery to divvy up land along the River Jordan. That story came from the Book of Numbers (naturally), but lotteries are also mentioned in Joshua, Leviticus, and Proverbs.

The concept can also be traced back to China, where a warlord named Cheung Leung came up with a numbers game (today known as keno) to persuade citizens to help pay for his army.

Other famous lotteries? Augustus Caesar authorized one to raise money for public works projects in Rome. The Chinese used one to help finance the Great Wall. And in 1466, in what is now the Belgian town of Bruges, a lottery was created to help the poor — a fund-raising effort they’ve been doing ever since……

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