History Of The Lottery

Lottery is defined as a gambling game or method of raising money for some public charitable purpose, in which a large number of tickets are sold and a drawing is held for certain prizes (Lottery). The history of lotteries date as far back as 200 B.C., when the Hun Dynasty in China started a lottery to help raise money for taxes, known today as Keno. In addition to raising money for taxes, the Chinese Lottery revenue was used to build the Great Wall of China. In 1446, Jan Van Eych, a Flimish painter, organized a lottery where his paintings were given as prizes. In 1530, the city of Florence, France began lotteries of their own, and in 1567, Queen Elizabeth I started a lottery. In the 17th century, the Virginia Company established the first

New Hampshire was the first to establish a state lottery in 1964, and today the lottery is in 42 states (Modern Lotteries Around the World). It was not until 1984, that California joined the other 19 states in the lottery business when California passed Proposition 37 – the California State Lottery Act of 1984 - with a 58% electorate vote (David Wallenchinksy). “The purpose of the Lottery Act was to provide supplemental monies to benefit public education without the imposition of additional or increased taxes”. Initially, the act required that 50 percent of annual revenues be given back to the public in prizes, 34 percent allocated to the public school systems, and administrative costs were not to exceed 16 percent of annual revenue. However, in 2010, the Lottery Act was changed and reduced the cap of administrative costs to 13 percent to allow more pay out in prizes (Fulfilling Our Mission).
In order to accomplish this, The Lottery Act required a five-member Commission to oversee the eight lottery games, and approve the budget and business plans of the California Lottery (About Us). In response to this requirement, the number employed by the commission in 2006 was 650 with the majority being in Finance & Administration/Finance, 29 Marketing positions and other various positions. However, in 2015 the total number employed rose to 803 with the Finance & Administration/Finance position reduced to 78 and the Marketing positions total zero (California