The word lottery comes from the dutch word loterij, from the verb lot, which means fate. many countries use lotteries as a way of making money for various public projects such as education programmes, buildings, universities, etc. there have been lotteries through much of history. the first ones were probably around 200 bc in what is now china. there are references to lotteries in many ancient texts, including homer’s the iliad. people think that the first european lottery was in the roman empire when augustus caesar held a lottery to raise money for repairs to the city of rome. the first public lottery was in sluis in the netherlands in 1434. several years later, other lotteries began to appear – this time with money as prizes. in england, queen elizabeth i held the first lottery in 1566 to get money for ‘public works’. america’s passion for lotteries began in 1612 when king james i gave the virginia company of london the right to raise money. the company used this money to finance the first settlement in america. after that, lotteries continued to be a popular way of making money for the colonies – in fact there were over 200 lotteries between 1744 and the american revolution. the money they made helped to build libraries, churches and roads amongst other things. however, after the revolution, there were a lot of scandals around lotteries and by the late 19th century they were banned in many states. they were illegal in the us until after world war ii. nowadays, there are lotteries throughout the us and the world. instant lottery tickets, where you scratch off the surface of the card, first appeared in the 1970s and are now an important part of lottery revenue for many governments. scandals (paragraph 3) means …