International holidays - Lottery Birthday (World Lottery Day)

The lottery's birthday is celebrated annually on February 24th Although the date is not included in the list of public holidays in any country, it has become widely known The explanation for this popularity is quite prosaic - almost every one of us at least once in our lives tried to try our luck and acquired a coveted ticket that can radically change a person’s life Lotteries are games of chance in which the distribution of gains and losses depends on random selection The prize can be money, material assets, or discounts/bonuses on certain goods and services The latter option is often found in modern lotteries, which are held by companies among their regular clients or customers The term "draw" is closely related to the word "lottery", although at first glance there is no similarity between them In Russia, it appeared during the reign of Peter I “Lottery” came into the Russian language from Dutch, and before that there was a long chain of borrowings that leads to the Proto-German “xlautaz,” which translates as “lot” In the 1980s in the USSR, lotteries became not just folk entertainment, but also one of the most popular hobbies At that time, up to 70% of the inhabitants of the USSR participated in Sportloto draws And in 1982, Leonid Gaidai’s film “Sportloto-82” was released The comedy is about a lottery ticket with a big win that gets lost The film became one of the highest-grossing films in the history of Soviet cinema Who invented lotteries? This mystery is safely hidden in the well-worn pages of history The prototype of the lottery is keno, one of the oldest games that was invented in China Eighty numbered balls are used to carry it out Players are given sheets of paper on which they write arbitrary combinations consisting of twenty numbers After the bets were placed, the balls were drawn The winning combination consisted of 20 numbers The size of the player's winnings depended on the number of matching numbers The well-known name of the game “keno” comes from the Latin language, but the birthplace of the game was China This country even has a beautiful legend about the origin of keno During the reign of one of the emperors from the Han Dynasty, the state was bled dry by endless military campaigns as part of a long-term war The treasury was rapidly emptying, and the country was on the brink of crisis The emperor found an original way out of the situation and held a public lottery The collections from it were so large that the proceeds were enough not only for military needs and support for troops in a long-term war, but also to partially cover the costs of building the Great Wall of China One of the most popular lotteries in Russia is “6 out of 36” In order to win the super prize, you need to guess a combination of 6 numbers on 36 cells The winning percentage for this lottery is 000005 To definitely win, you need to buy 19 million tickets and spend 97 million rubles on it Mentions of lotteries are also found in ancient Greek myths As you know, Zeus was the most powerful Olympian since the Titanomachy After the overthrow of Kronos, he took the throne on Olympus and a duel with the god of thunder and lightning was a great honor for an ordinary mortal The most famous warriors dreamed of winning or dying with honor at the hands of Zeus, so there were a lot of contenders for the battle with God, but the Thunderer could not satisfy everyone’s challenge Then an interesting way out of the situation was invented - drawing lots Pebbles were placed in the golden helmet, one of which differed in shape and color The warriors took turns pulling out their stones The one who got the winning one went to battle with Zeus Another mention of the lottery is found in the Bible God told Moses to gather and count the Jews, and then use lots to divide the lands on the west bank of the Jordan among them In ancient Rome, lotteries became widespread during the reign of Julius Caesar He held them in order to raise funds for public needs The money received was used to build roads, buildings and bridges During holidays and mass celebrations, free lotteries were held among the poor These drawings gave a few lucky winners a chance to win a good cash prize Subsequently, lotteries were repeatedly held in different European countries, but the first surviving documentary mention of them dates back to 1466 In the now Belgian town of Bruges, a drawing was held with a large monetary reward Anyone could take part in it It was a charity lottery organized by the widow of the Dutch artist Jan Van Eyck, timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the death of her husband The woman donated the proceeds from this raffle to those in need Even the most inveterate skeptics sometimes give in and are ready to believe in fortune, so the best way to celebrate February 24 is to buy a couple of coveted tickets Who knows, maybe fate will decide to smile on you on this very day, because, as you know, she has an excellent sense of humor Every week, 20 lottery millionaires appear in Russia; there are already more than 5,000 of them in the country The lottery winner must pay a tax of 13% If the prize was received in a competition or game held for advertising purposes, the tax rate increases to 35%