Fate’s Bookie: How the Lottery Shaped the World

Today, the world lottery market amounts to more than $200 billion in annual sales, and some 140 state lotteries flourish in 75 countries. Yet lotteries have always been condemned for encouraging the belief that success has more to do with luck and chance than hard work or moral values, and they have long been associated with fraud, corruption and greed. But they have also delivered huge benefits: ?20 billion has been raised for good causes in the UK alone. Fate’s Bookie tells the story of the lottery from its Ancient Greek origins, through the activities of extraordinary personalities such as Casanova, George Washington and Queen Elizabeth I, the backlash of the moralists such as Wilberforce and the corruption of the Louisiana State Lottery, to its controversial use in allocating school places and public appointments. It is a rich tale of the eternal fight between moral rectitude and the desperation of governments to raise money. ‘the best book on lottery history…as Hicks shows, the line with financial services has always been blurred, with, for example, the 17th century lottery doubling as a kind of Treasury bond scheme…a quotation from Sir William Cecil, Secretary of State to Elizabeth I, echoes of today, when he declared that a lack of money is the principal sickness in this court .’ Don Atkinson, Financial Mail on Sunday