Malta's first lotto - the country's first legal lottery - was held at the Granaries in Valletta 100 years ago today.
And the winning numbers on February 10, 1923 were… 6, 53, 72, 41 and 6.
If you’re tempted to play them in the next lotto, you’d be part of a long tradition of people playing ‘special numbers’ in an attempt to get Lady Luck to smile on them.
“Many players would often keep the same lottery numbers that had a special significance or play numbers that were related to current events,” veteran lotto receiver Arthur Rossi told Times of Malta.
Rossi has spent much of his life in a lotto booth, first in Valletta and then in Msida.
He inherited the career from his father, Joseph, and has in turn passed on the baton to his son Marco.
The 77-year-old’s interest has led him to research the history of lotto in Malta.
Lotto receivers used to have to wear a suit
In the early days of the lotto, he said, receivers would have to wear a suit, even in the summer.
It was certainly not the first time people in Malta had gambled their money – the rich would send their servants to gamble their money on the Sicilian lottery.
“Many servants themselves would also play, borrowing money at extortionate rates,” Rossi said, quoting his research.
Another lotto enthusiast and researcher is Joe Vella, who has worked part-time with the lotto department. He said illegal gambling was rife in Malta at the time.
'Great deal of gambling in Malta in 1902'
He cited a 1902 edition of the Daily Malta Chronicle which reported that “there is gambling in Malta, in our crowded towns there is even a great deal of gambling and little effort is made at the present to stamp it out”.
A few years before, six women and 14 men were sentenced to 21 days’ detention “for holding lotteries without police permission”.
“The magistrate commended the police for their energy in stamping out this evil, and assured them of his support,” Vella quotes from the Daily Malta Chronicle of September 17, 1896.
Lotto persisted during World War II
The lotto persisted even during World War II. It was only COVID-19 restrictions that halted operations, between March 21 to May 2, 2020.
Rossi retired at that point, putting an end to a career spanning over 50 years and handing the keys to his lotto office to his son.
Rossi was active in organising workers in the sector, a family tradition. His father Joseph founded the receivers’ union in 1947 and his son is the current president of the organisation.
He recalled how he was in a team that negotiated conditions for receivers when the lotto in Malta was privatised in 2004 and given to Maltco Lotteries.
Two issues – the commission, a receiver’s bread and butter, and opening hours – were the subject of tense negotiations well into the early hours of the morning, Rossi recalled.
The operating concession was handed to IZI group in July 2022, with the lotto now being run by its subsidiary National Lottery plc.