Lottery… an Italian story

The history of lotteries originates from the famous Lottery Italy back in 1958, which was also called New Year’s lottery where the cost of the ticket was 500 Lire. January 6, the day of the Epiphany, was the day chosen for the drawing of the winning tickets from the very beginning. And it is precisely on January 6, 1959 that this now inevitable appointment of the arrival of the goddess luck was born, who comes knocking on the doors of some lucky Italian.

Until the first decade of 2000, the Italy lottery, between ups and downs, has always held its own and has always been the top game, at least until the introduction of new games with immediate winning methods.
The history of the lottery is certainly one of the most enduring, so much so that this year it turns 63 years old. Even today it is combined with the most popular television programs, which became very popular programs thanks also to the choice of famous Italian television hosts.

The program, which was associated with the first lottery of 1958, which saw a prize pool of 100,000,000, was the singing contest “Canzonissima” conducted by Walter Chiari and Renato Taglia. The show saw Nilla Pizzi as the winner, who conquered the Italians and was reconfirmed also for the following year. The cost of the ticket and the prize money of subsequent editions of the Italian Lottery remained unchanged until 1961 when the prize money increased up to 150,000,000; and always combined with the Canzonissima variety until 1962.
The following year a new show was introduced that accompanied the lottery: the “Grand Prize” show that inherits the management of the Lottery draw from Canzonissima. Later the show was once again replaced by “Naples against all” which saw the great Claudio Villa as the winner with the timeless “O sole mio”.
In 1964, the TV show was changed once again with the “litmus test” conducted by Corrado and Walter Chiari, a famous edition that saw the Kessler twins disqualify for their scandalous clothing and triumph Gianni Morandi with “Non son worthy of you “. This was one of the most viewed editions given the very high number of viewers that reached 14 million media.

An even higher number of viewers was reached the following year with a good 18 million, with Peppino de Filippo conducting from the Teatro delle Vittorie with “Scala Reale” a team singing competition inspired by the playing cards of poker.

Passing through “Partitissima”, which opened the doors to the Saturday night show where the ratings continue to rise, reaching 20 million. In 1968 there was the great return of “Canzonissima” and in the following years there was a succession of great varieties and great protagonists from Johnny Dorelli, Raffaella Carrà with his dance that became a hit “Tuca Tuca”, Raimondo Vianello and Loretta Goggi.
In 1974 the cost of the ticket went from 500 to 1000 lire and the prize money rose to 200,000,000 with the variety conducted by Raffaella Carrà, the first woman to lead the show dedicated to the lottery where she also launched her famous song “Rumore”.

1975 decreed the end of the “Canzonissima” variety with the beginning of other shows no longer focused on the singing competition.
With “Secondo Voi” conducted by Pippo Baudo there was the turning point with the first color show combined with the Italy lottery. The following year with “Me and the Befana” led by the timeless couple Sandra Mondaini and Raimondo Vianello, the ticket remained at a cost of 1000 lire and the prize pool reached 300,000,000.
The lights lit up on Saturday evening with the birth of the “Fantastico” show which saw 12 editions with the absolute protagonists of the TV of the 80s and 90s.

The first edition with prominent women such as Loretta Goggi and showgirl Heather Parisi where both sang and danced in which the show achieved peaks of ratings that reached peaks of 25 million viewers.
The succession of editions over the years saw another change to the lottery prize that we find in 1981 when the prize pool rose to 500,000,000.

The cost of the ticket also varied, passing to 2,000 lire in 1983 combined with “Fantastico 4” with Gigi Proietti, Teresa De Sio and Heather Parisi.

Both the cost and the prize money doubled in the two years of “Fantastico 6” and “Fantastico 7” with Pippo Baudo at the helm who decreed the launch of Lorella Cuccarini and starred Alessandra Martines and the Solenghi-Marchesini – Lopez trio. We are talking about the years ’85 and ’86 where the cost rose to 4,000 lire and the prize money to 1,000,000,000 lire. The latter tripled in 1989 even if the lottery suffered a decline in sales compared to the previous year, where it recorded a record of 38 million tickets sold.

A period of decline in ratings also began and it was in 1991 that a turning point for the recovery was decided by entrusting the conduct of “Fantastico 12” to Raffaella Carrà flanked by Corrado with whom a good understanding did not seem to flow and the show finally collapsed. In the meantime, the cost of the ticket rose to 5,000 lire and the prize money to 5,000,000,000. Turning to “Let’s bet that? “With the return of Raffaella Carrà it was possible to bring audience ratings and ticket sales to the fore with her“ Carramba what a surprise ”.

Several shows follow one another up to the choice of combining the lottery in 2004 with “Affari Tuoi”, the successful top quiz of Rai conducted by Paolo Bonolis where, in addition to seeing a final prize pool of 5 million euros up for grabs, it was possible to win 15,000 euros every day in one of the lucky packages.
He then went back to Saturday evening with “Dancing with the stars” for two editions, to then re-propose Carramba which became “Carramba che fortuna”. We will then move on to Friday evening with “The best years” and then combine the Lottery Italy with the successful program of the noon “La Prova del Cuoco” with the brilliant Antonella Clerici, however, entrusting the final evening of the draw again to the “Affari Tuoi” quiz. this time led by Flavio Insinna. The same formula will then be adopted also in 2017 by combining the final evening with the variety “I soliti Ignoti” which is still entrusted with the Italy 2020 lottery with extraction on 6 January 20121. An appointment always awaited with luck, with history and with the our Italy …… Good Luck!