Lotto's origins date back to the 16th century in Genoa. Their has always been a habit of wagering on outcomes of events and lotto games in Italy. People would wager on the results of five of a certain city's officials chosen randomly from 120 noblemen. This number was eventually cut down to 90. The lottery became more structured with the use of numbers rather than names.
This 90-number format quickly became popular throughout the country. At the time, jurisdictions fell under several territories, including the Milan Duchy and the Naples Kingdom. The most famous of these local lotto traditions is the Neapolitan Smorfia.
The Italy Lottery was first incorporated into the state's official budget on September 27, 1863 and by Royal Edict in January 1864, it was expanded to include five additional city draws. When the Rome wheel was added in 1871, draws were held every Saturday, and the Bari wheel was added in 1874. The Cagliari wheel and Genoa wheel became part of the game in 1939, completing the 10 city wheels that are still in use today.
Modern Era
On March 12, 1997, another weekly draw was added. A year later some more significant changes were done. The National Wheel which has its draw in Rome first occurred on May 4th, 2005. A month after, the adopted its current three-draws-a-week. The last Wednesday draw happened on June 15, 2005. Draws moved to Tuesdays, Thursdays, and the last round on Saturdays starting Tuesday, June 21, 2005.
Is Italy Lotto Lottery Legal?
There was a long debate about whether betting was legal, but in 1734, Venice introduced a lottery game that was fully regulated and approved by the government. Initially, draws were held only twice or three times per year, before becoming fortnightly in 1807. Since then, Italy's Lotto lottery has been legal.