Q 01/05

The earliest recorded signs of a lottery are keno slips from which Chinese dynasty?

A) Han

B) Tang

C) Ming

D) Qin

Answer · why

A) Han

The slips date to between 205 and 187 BC, and the money is thought to have helped fund projects such as the Great Wall.

Q 02/05

The English word 'lottery' comes from a Dutch word meaning what?

A) Ticket

B) Fate

C) Prize

D) Number

Answer · why

B) Fate

Lotteries in the Low Countries in the 1400s raised money for town walls and the poor, and were hailed as a painless form of taxation.

Q 03/05

Which country's state lottery, running since 1726, is the oldest still in operation?

A) Portugal

B) Denmark

C) Netherlands

D) Belgium

Answer · why

C) Netherlands

Fifteenth-century Low Countries towns already used lotteries to fund town walls and help the poor, and hailed them as painless taxation.

Q 04/05

Modern lotto descends from betting in which Italian city on which five of ninety council members would be drawn?

A) Venice

B) Florence

C) Naples

D) Genoa

Answer · why

D) Genoa

When bettors wanted more than two draws a year, they swapped the candidates' names for numbers and modern lotto was born.

Q 05/05

Which Roman emperor ran the earliest recorded lottery that sold tickets, to fund repairs in Rome?

A) Augustus

B) Nero

C) Caligula

D) Hadrian

Answer · why

A) Augustus

Earlier Roman 'lotteries' were just dinner-party gift draws where every guest won a prize such as fancy dinnerware.