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22 articles
- ⚔️Do Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot and Merlin Have Favourite Numbers? UK Lotto's Draw Machines, 1994-2026Since 1994 UK Lotto has been drawn by machines with names: Arthurian knights, then gemstones, now plain numbers. We checked 3,258 rounds against three other sources and tested every machine and ball set with enough draws for favourite numbers - and explain why Guinevere's 'lucky' 49 and 54 are no signal.9 min
- 🏥The Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake: The Charity Lottery Nobody Could Fully AuditFrom 1930 to 1986 Ireland's Sweep sold tickets across Britain and America, where they were illegal, to fund Irish hospitals. A 1973 exposé said the hospitals got under 10 per cent. Dáil records show why nobody could prove it either way - and what to ask any charity lottery today.10 min
- 🐙The Louisiana Lottery: The Company That Got America's Lotteries Banned for 70 YearsTwo Confederate generals ran its draws, it sold tickets by mail to the whole country and paid back just under 53 cents on the dollar. How the Louisiana State Lottery Company bought a state, lost to the US Post Office and fled to Honduras - and why no US state ran a lottery again until 1964.12 min
- UK Lotto Now Draws Twice a Night: What the Two-Round Format PaysSince 10 June 2026 every £2 UK Lotto line plays two rounds. More winners, smaller fixed prizes – here is what 28 draw nights actually paid.8 min
- 🕶️Can You Stay Anonymous After Winning the Lottery? A Country-by-Country GuideThe same jackpot can leave you an unknown private citizen in one country and a front-page name across the border. Here is where anonymity is the default, where disclosure is mandatory, and how the US trust-and-LLC workaround actually fits in.11 min
- 🍀History of Bonoloto: Spain's Everyday Lottery Since 1988From its February 1988 launch with four weekly draws to today's daily format: how Bonoloto became Spain's low-cost everyday 6/49 lottery.10 min
- 🎫History of La Primitiva: Spain's Original Lottery from 1763 to a EUR 126M RecordFrom Carlos III's 1763 Royal Lottery to the restored 6/49 game and a new EUR 126M record in 2026: the story of Spain's most historic number lottery.11 min
- 🟡History of Mega Millions: From The Big Game to Billion-Dollar JackpotsFrom its 1996 launch as The Big Game to the modern $5 format: the complete history of Mega Millions, including rebrands, rule changes, record jackpots, and current odds.12 min
- ⭐History of EuroMillions: Europe's Biggest Multi-Country Lottery Since 2004From its 2004 launch to the new €250M era: the complete history of EuroMillions, including rule changes, record jackpots, and how 9 countries built a lottery giant.12 min
- History of Irish Lotto: Ireland's National Lottery Since 1988From the first draw in 1988 to the €19.06M record jackpot: the complete history of Irish Lotto, including rule changes, famous winners, and today's odds.11 min
- 🔴The $2.04 Billion Ticket: How Powerball Became the Largest Lottery Prize in HistoryOn 8 November 2022, a customer at Joe's Service Center in Altadena, California bought a Powerball ticket. Two days later, Edwin Castro claimed a jackpot of $2.04 billion — the largest single lottery prize ever paid anywhere in the world. Behind the headline figure sits a 30-year, multi-state, format-by-format engineering project designed to produce numbers like that on a regular schedule.14 min
- 🌎The Biggest Lotteries in South America: Mega-Sena, Baloto & Co.From Brazil's massive Mega-Sena to Colombia's Baloto: Discover the biggest jackpots, best odds, and most popular lotteries across South America.10 min
- Not the Christmas One: How El Gordo de la Primitiva Built Spain's Sunday Lottery RitualThere are two lotteries in Spain that share most of a name, and almost everyone confuses them. The famous El Gordo de Navidad is the Christmas draw with €4 billion in prizes and the schoolchildren singing the numbers. This article is about the other one — El Gordo de la Primitiva, the weekly Sunday draw with the Reintegro stake-refund mechanic — and why the two share a name almost entirely by accident.11 min
- Eurojackpot's Continental Build: From 7 Founding Countries to 19, Hosted in HelsinkiLaunched in 2012 to compete with EuroMillions, Eurojackpot has done something no European lottery did before: grown from 7 founding members to 19, expanded the format twice, and run every Tuesday and Friday draw out of a single Helsinki studio. This article traces the country-by-country build and explains why Germany, the bloc's largest player base, dominates the winners table.12 min
- Camelot, Allwyn and the British Lottery Habit: How UK Lotto Was Actually BuiltTwenty-two million Britons watched the first draw on a single Saturday night in November 1994. Three decades later a Czech-owned company runs the franchise, the draw machines are named after Arthurian knights, and the game has paid out over £48 billion to good causes — here is how it all came together.12 min
- 💶Taxes on Lottery Winnings in France: A Paradise for Winners?Good news for France fans: Lottery winnings are tax-free. But watch out for the wealth tax on real estate!8 min
- 💵Taxes on Lottery Winnings: How Much Does Uncle Sam Take in the USA?Winning the lottery is a dream, but taxes in the USA are a reality. Unlike many other countries, the IRS and states want their share. Here's what you need to know.10 min
- 💶Are Lottery Winnings Taxed in Germany? The 2026 RulesThe good news first: Lottery winnings are mostly tax-free in Germany. But be careful with interest and gifts – here are all the rules explained.8 min
- The 6/90 Game: How SuperEnalotto's Math Creates the World's Toughest LotteryMost national lotteries pick from 40 to 60 numbers. Italy picks from 90 — a choice inherited from the football-pool tradition of the 1950s. That single decision gives SuperEnalotto jackpot odds of 1 in 622 million, twice as hard as Powerball and four times harder than 6 aus 49. Italians don't seem to mind. Here is how the math works, and how the €371M record rollover was built.14 min
- French Loto History & Record Jackpots (1976–2026)First drawn in 1976 at the Théâtre de l'Empire in Paris, the modern French Loto has spent five decades quietly evolving — but the most distinctive feature isn't the format. It's the way the lottery has been woven into the financing of France's cultural heritage, through a mechanism called Mission Patrimoine, that doesn't really exist in the German, British or Spanish equivalents.12 min
- 6 aus 49 Explained: Inside Germany's Federal Lottery ModelMost countries hand their national lottery to a single private licensee or one state-owned company. Germany splits 6 aus 49 across 16 cooperating state lotteries — a federalist quirk that shapes everything from where the money goes to who can sell tickets. Here is how Germany's longest-running lottery actually works, after seven decades of small but telling rule changes.15 min
- Major Lotteries in the United States: Complete GuideEverything you need to know about Powerball, Mega Millions, and other major US lotteries – rules, history, odds, and record jackpots explained.12 min