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A Brief History of Lottery Tickets
A Brief History of Lottery Tickets
Lottery tickets have a long and colorful history. The first lottery tickets known are keno slips from the Han Dynasty in China. During the Roman Empire lotteries were used for entertainment during lavish dinner parties. The earliest recorded public lottery was organized by the Roman Emperor Caesar Augustus and the proceeds from the lottery were used for repairs in the city of Rome. One of the first European lotteries took place in the Dutch town of Sluis in the 14th century. This early lottery was the first public lottery to offer cash prizes and proved very popular. Lotteries spread across what is now known as the Netherlands and Belgium. Many of these early lotteries used the proceeds for charitable purposes. In the Netherlands lotteries were regarded as a painless kind of taxation.
Ticket based lo0tteries quickly spread to England Queen Elizabeth I chartered the first public lottery in 1566. Later the English government sold the right to sell lottery tickets to brokers who hired employees to sell the lottery tickets. Believe it or not these early lottery brokers were the forerunners of today’s stock brokers.
The history of the United States and lotteries are indelibly connected. The Virginia Company in London held private lotteries to fund the early settlement at Jamestown Virginia. In 1612 King James the First granted the Virginia Company the right to hold private lotteries. Later on lotteries played an important part in the development of Colonial America. Princeton and Columbia universities were financed by lotteries as was the University of Pennsylvania. During the Revolutionary War the Continental Congress established lotteries top fund the Continental Army. Later on the United States forgot its lottery heritage and banned lotteries and by 1900 lotteries had disappeared from the American scene.
The ban on lotteries spawned a new criminal enterprise known as the ‘numbers game.’ Most numbers games were very similar to current pick 3, pick 4 and pick 5 games offered by most state lotteries. In the 1960’s New Hampshire became the first state in modern times to sell lottery tickets. Since then 43 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico have established lotteries. Computer technology made the purchase of lottery tickets easier and more accurate. Lottery retailers are able to offer ‘quick pick’ options where numbers are selected by a random number generator. The addition of mega jackpot multi state lotteries like Powerball and mega Millions set new records for lottery ticket sales.
What does the future hole for lottery tickets? Most industry experts say that online lottery ticket sales will be extremely popular among players and boost ticket sales. Some offshore lotteries have already made the move online with great success. In New Zealand players can even have winnings deposited into personal bank accounts electronically. The UK National Lottery sells tickets online and also sells tickets for a few European lotteries such as EuroMillions. In the not so distant future most lottery experts expect paper lottery tickets to be a thing of the past.
4 Tips to Winning Double or Nothing Tournaments
Double or nothing tournaments are much different than normal poker tournaments because they have a very unique payout structure. In a double or nothing tournament half of the players in the field double their buy-in and half lose theirs. The fact that so many players cash combined with the fact that there is no difference in prize amount between first place and the last casher means the strategy for these tournaments is very unique.
Tip 1 Play Tight in the Early Stages of the Tourney At this stage of a double or nothing tournament you want to play very tight and only play big hands. The less experienced double or nothing players will likely be playing a lot of hands and you want to let them. If you do find a good hand you should play it aggressively in order to keep from allowing your opponent to suck out on you.
Tip 2 Maintain Your Stack through the Middle Stages In the middle stages of a double or nothing tournament the blinds will start to increase and you will need to steal blinds on occasion to maintain your stack size. You cant have your stack getting too small at this stage because you want it to carry you through the later levels.
Tip 3 Survive the Late Stages In the late stages you should just be focussing on surviving. At this point there will be about two-thirds of the field remaining which means there will only be a few more busts before you cash. If you have a big stack at this stage you should just hold onto it and not risk any chips when you dont need to. If you have a short stack you will want to compare your stack size to the other short stacks and if you are in a non-cash position you should get aggressive and try to gain some chips. If you need to get aggressive you should try to use your position to your advantage and you should also attack the blinds of the medium sized stacks. These players with about an average stack at this point will be wanting to fold their way into the money and you can take advantage of this by stealing their blinds.
Tip 4 Avoid Coin Flips in the Early Stages In double or nothing tournaments it is best to avoid coin flips in the early stages because they are negative expected value. This is simply because if you lose the coin flip youre out of the tourney and you lose the buy-in, whereas if you manage to win the coin flip you just have double the amount of chips and you arent even guaranteed to cash. This theory holds true only because the top prize you can win is only double your buy-in and by winning the 50% coin flip you havent even guaranteed yourself this cash.
Double or nothing tournaments are a grind and once the non-experienced players go out in the early rounds it all comes down to who can best adjust in the late stages and get the cards when they are needed.