The first known lottery in France was created by King Francis I in or around 1505. After that first attempt, lotteries were forbidden for two centuries.

They reappeared at the end of 17th century, as a "public lottery" for the Paris municipality (called Loterie de L'Hotel de Ville) and as "private" ones for religious orders (mostly for nuns in convents).

Lotteries became quickly one of the most important resources for religious congregations in the 18th century.

Lotteries helped to build or rebuild many churches (about 15 including the biggest ones) in Paris during the 18th century, including St Sulpice and Le Panthéon.

At the beginning of the century, the King avoided having to fund religious orders by giving them the right to run lotteries, but the amounts generated became so large that the second part of the century turned into a struggle between the monarchy and the Church for control of the lotteries. In 1774, the Loterie de L'École Militaire was founded by the monarchy (by Mme de Pompadour to be precise, to buy what is called today the Champ de Mars in Paris, and build a Military Academy that Napoleon Bonaparte would later attend) and all other lotteries, with 3 or 4 minor exceptions, were forbidden.

This lottery became known a few years later as the Loterie Royale de France. Just before the French Revolution in 1789 the revenues from La Lotterie Royale de France were equivalent to between 5 and 7% of total French revenues.

Throughout the 18th century, philosophers like Voltaire as well as some bishops complained that lotteries exploit the poor. This subject has generated much oral and written debate over the morality of the lottery.

All lotteries (including state lotteries) were frowned upon by idealists of the French Revolution, who viewed them as a method used by the rich for cheating the poor out of their wages.

The Lottery reappeared in France in 1936, called loto, when socialists needed to increase state revenue. Since that time, La Française des Jeux (government owned) has had a monopoly on most of the games in France, including the lotteries.

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