The attraction of lotteries is no novelty. The practice dates back to seventeenth-century Genoa, where it seems to have evolved by accident from the electoral system. Every six months, two of the city’s governatori were drawn from the members of the Petty Council. Rather than hold an election, Genoa carried out the election by lot, drawing two slips from a pile containing the names of all 120 councilors. Before long, the city’s gamblers began to place extravagant side bets on the election outcome. The bets became so popular that gamblers started to chafe at having to wait until
