The ancient roots of lottery
the word “lottery” comes from the dutch word “lot”, which means fate, luck, or chance. it reflects the essence of the lottery as a game of chance.
over time, the term evolved in different languages, becoming “lotteria” in italian, “loterie” in french, and “lottery” in english, and eventually spreading globally.
in arabic, the concept of a lottery is derived from the word “nasib”, meaning luck. its roots can be traced back to ancient times. early forms of lotteries were used to make decisions and distribute property by chance. their history dates back to the roman era, and even earlier. both ancient and modern forms of lotteries have been used to fund government projects of a social nature, such as building hospitals, providing medicine, or financing major national infrastructure projects.
strange and sometimes humorous criticisms and comments have been circulating on social media regarding the recent controversy surrounding the hala february festival prizes and bank raffle prizes. however, discussing these matters is currently prohibited.
first and foremost, distributing lottery prizes and other prizes is not a new practice in kuwait. we have been familiar with lotteries since our childhood, when soft drink companies offered fun and useful prizes to those who found a picture printed under the cap of a bottle.
for a while, another commercial company distributed prizes based on stamps collected from customers’ purchases at selected stores. even the government-owned kuwait airways, in an effort to encourage travel, awards passengers points for every flight they take. once passengers accumulate a certain number of points, they can redeem them for free tickets.
the practice of distributing awards through lotteries by financial, commercial, or even governmental institutions to promote visits to a particular country or increase sales of a specific product or service is widespread globally.
the highest lottery prize in history was the $2.04 billion powerball jackpot, won by edwin castro on november 7, 2022.
some people wonder why certain kuwaiti banks are unique in offering such generous prizes and why no other banks around the world offer similar rewards. however, this is not accurate.
since the beginning of the oil boom, kuwait has been known for its high standard of living. along with this prosperity, many citizens developed a strong desire to save money, while others rejected the notion of earning usurious interest on their deposits for religious reasons. as a result, large “interest-free” balances accumulated in banks, providing substantial returns for their shareholders for over seventy years.
this liquid cash prompted one bank to persuade regulatory authorities to permit the distribution of large monthly cash prizes to customers’ non-interest bearing accounts. other banks soon followed suit. a fierce competition ensued among banks to capture the largest share of this “free” money, with some prizes reaching up to two million dinars. some banks even introduced lotteries for customers who transferred their monthly salaries to their accounts.
this strategy is often based on precise bank calculations. the profits generated from investing these large, interest-free funds have enabled banks to offer huge annual prizes with little to no real cost.
