Worldwide Lotteries

Lottery in Europe

EuroMillions is a largest lottery in europe with 9 countries currently as members. The first draw was held in February 2004 in Paris, France with three countries participating: The United Kingdom, France and Spain. However later that year Belgium, Austria, Luxemboug, Belgium Portugal and Switzerland joined in early October 2004. Draws are held every Friday and still take place in Paris. A standard ticket usually costs two dollars (in local currency). There is a standard prize if the correct numbers are selected in all countries.

Unlike the United States, prizes including the jackpot are all tax free and are paid out in one lump sum (with the exception of Switzerland). In 2009 not a single ticket was claimed from January to August and the jackpot continued to accumulate over the eight month period. A single lump sum payment was awarded of €147,807,299.08 the largest jackpot in european history.

There are currently over 67 countries worldwide with national lotteries.

France

France first introduced a lottery in 1505 under King Francis the 1st. However after that first attempt any kind of lottery was forbidden until the 17th century. It reappeared as the “Loterie de L’Hotel de Ville” in Paris proper. A number of other “private” lotteries sprung up in churches mostly played by nuns in convents. However these quickly became one of the largest resources for the church. Helping to rebuild a number of churches in Paris. These extra funds also allowed the king was able to avoid having to fund religious groups. This backfired later in the century when there became a struggle between the church and the monarchy for control of the lotteries. Just before the collapse of the french monarchy in 1789 the revenues from lotteries were equivalent to 7% of total French revenues.

Today the lottery is currently owned by the government in France by the public company “La Francaise des Jeux”. They have a government sanctioned monopoly on running lotteries and prevents other companies from starting lotteries of their own.

Australia

Australia has a combination of public/private lotteries running at the state or territory level. The two largest of the private companies running their own lottery are “Tatts Group Limited” and “Intralot Australia”. There are a number of public run ones as well including “New South Wales Lottery”, “South Australian Lotteries” and “Lotterywest” all operating in different territories or states. Some states will pool revenues and jackpots together across the country.

Liechtenstein

The ILLF (International Lottery in Liechtenstein Foundation) is a state controlled charitable foundation that operates lotteries over the Internet. They pioneered the idea gambling online and launched PLUS Lotto as the first online lottery in 1995. The ILLF donates much of its revenues to charity. One of their main recipents is International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies as well as projects which help poorer nations around the world.