By Johanne Slettvoll Kristiansen
The Royal Swedish Number Lotto (‘Kungliga Nummerlotteriet’) left its mark on life in the Swedish capital of Stockholm for a period of nearly 70 years. Its first drawing took place in February 1773, and they continued every third week in the form of meticulously staged state ceremonies, conducted with great pomp and splendour, until the Number Lotto was finally abolished in 1841. During its existence, competing forms of public gambling were outlawed, and the public rage for games of chance was channelled towards the new state lottery.
Lotto (or ‘Lotto di Genova’) originated in Genoa in the seventeenth century and spread across Europe over the course of the eighteenth, reaching Scandinavia by the early 1770s (an equivalent Danish lotto held its first drawing in 1771). The game is usually classified as a type of lottery, but its structure was fundamentally different from other and more familiar types of lotteries in Scandinavia at the time. These were set up as raffles, where a limited and predetermined number of relatively expensive lottery tickets would have to be sold before a drawing could take place. Prizes were determined by the income from ticket sales and would be randomly and unevenly distributed among the ticket holders during the drawing. Prizes could range from—say— 50,000 rixdollars to nothing (a ‘nite’ or a ‘blank’, giving rise to the expression ‘drawing a blank’). Only a few lucky ticket holders would win a significant sum of money; others would win smaller but still considerable prizes; but the large majority would draw blanks.
The number of tickets in the lotto, however, was unlimited, which meant that players need not compete with one another for entry. If you were able to purchase a ticket in time for the draw, you were in, regardless of the number of participants. The Number lotto also provided players with more agency, because it enabled them to form their own bets through various number combinations (in contrast, the tickets of the raffle-style lotteries were pre-numbered). Last, but not least, the price of a lotto ticket depended on the nature of your bet: if combinations and stakes were kept to a minimum, the game was well within the reach of the poor.
Taken together, these factors made the Number lotto wildly popular, but also controversial. Debates raged across Europe concerning its potentially dangerous effects, especially on the poor and uneducated. It was commonly argued that they were not able to understand the nature of the game, more specifically the improbability of winning: they kept playing and kept losing the money they should have spent on feeding themselves and their families. From the mercantilist viewpoint held by many in Scandinavia in this period, the lotto would ruin not only the individual but the state itself, since the strength of the state rested on the good condition of its people.
The Number lotto was a controversial institution and a defining feature of urban life in the Swedish capital for nearly 70 years. Despite this fact, there is a conspicuous lack of knowledge about and attention to this topic, both in the scholarly community and elsewhere. If mentioned at all, it is usually only with reference to the role played by the Swedish poet and songwriter Carl Michael Bellman, who acted as secretary from 1776–1795. In fact, the interest in Bellman has caused problems for historians wishing to research the history of the Number lotto, because many key sources have been purchased by Bellman collectors and have become spread across private archives or lost in the process.
Carl Michael Bellman (1740–1795) was a Swedish poet, songwriter, entertainer, and master improviser, most known for two collections of poems set to music: Fredman’s epistles and Fredman’s songs. He was especially celebrated for his unique ability to combine elegant classical references with descriptions of the seedy underbelly of Stockholm, with many of his songs focusing on the themes of drinking and prostitution.
However, Bellman was not just a great artist: he was also a state employee. Despite having several failed employments behind him, he became a personal favourite of King Gustavus III after writing a poem of praise following his coup d’état in 1772. Bellman applied personally for the position as secretary in December 1775, characteristically in the form of a poem. The closing stanza read:
Der dess höga vinster dragas,
Söker jag en tjenst och lön,
Men Gudinnan, rik och skön,
Låter ej en skymt uppdagas
I mitt låga, mörka skjul …
Om Ers Majestät behagar
Gilla Lyckans hårda lagar,
Dör Poeten innan jul.[1]
Translated into English (with no pretensions to poetic flair), the stanza reads:
Where the high prizes are drawn
I seek employment and a salary
But the Goddess [Fortuna], rich and beautiful,
Will not let one glimmer of hope
Into my humble, dark abode
If Your Majesty should prefer
To favour the harsh laws of fortune
The poet will surely die by Christmas.
Bellman was awarded the position, but his role in the daily operations of the lotto was minimal. His employment was a so-called sinecure bestowed by the king, which entailed a handsome salary but little actual work. Be that as it may, Bellman may have served a much more important function through his popular image; in modern terms one could perhaps say that he worked in a precursor to the Public Relations department.[2]
As a leading figure within Scandinavian culture, Bellman continues to lend an aura of sophistication and interest to an institution that few, perhaps, would otherwise take much notice of. Behind this cultivated façade, there were countless unknown men and women whose lives were touched by this institution, for better or worse. Nevertheless, the Swedish Royal Number lotto will most probably continue to shine brightest in the public imagination as ‘Bellman’s lottery’.
[1] Carl Michael Bellman, ‘Till konungen, då skalden sökte att blifwa sekreterare vid nummerlotteriet i December 1775’ [To the King, when the poet applied for the position as secretary to the Royal Number lotto in December 1775], in Samlade Skrifter af Carl Michael Bellman, utgifna af Joh. Gabr. Carlén, fjerde delen (Stockholm: Adolf Bonniers förlag, 1861), pp. 270-271.
[2] Bengt Gustaf Jonshult, ‘Bellman i Nummerlotteriet’, in Spel! Spel om pengar i dag och förr i tiden (Tipstjänst/Bra Böcker: 1994), pp. 146-148.
Johanne Slettvoll Kristiansen is a postdoctoral scholar specializing in British and Scandinavian eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cultural history. She is part of an international research project exploring the historical and cultural roots of European state-sanctioned lotteries (https://www.ntnu.no/blogger/lotteryfantasy/). The project is funded by The Research Council of Norway for the period of 2022–2024.