Bet You Can't Guess Trivia Quiz

Answer: China

Obviously very little is known about such an old lottery but it is believed by historians that this lottery was used to finance major undertakings such as the construction of the Great Wall. This early version of Keno was known as the "white pigeon game", so named for the birds that flew from village to village with the results.
So little is known due to the lack of records, not because the winning participants ticked the "no publicity" box.

Answer: Daily Star

Fledgling newspaper the "Daily Star" needed a marketing gimmick if they were going to survive, and bingo was the answer as they took most of their new readers from main rival "The Sun".
Not surprisingly, "The Sun" hit back as soon as possible by launching their own bingo game and reducing the price of the paper to make it even more appealing.
Newspaper bingo, in which a bingo card was delivered to every household in UK and bingo numbers printed daily in the respective paper was huge in the UK in 1980s, so big in fact that even "The Times" got in on the act. Their version wasn't called bingo though; designed to appeal to a better class of bingo player, it was called "Portfolio" and was based on stocks and shares.

Answer: Republic of Genoa

The Grand Council of the Republic of Genoa consisted of just five people drawn at random from a pool of ninety every six months. Betting on this became extremely popular and proved so popular that candidates names were replaced with numbers, thus allowing citizens to gamble on the result more than twice a year.

Answer: Liberty Bell

The original slot machines were based on poker didn't have an automated payout, so the prizes were dependant on the bar or brothel in which you were playing. While one bar may offer a free beer for a full house, another may offer just a cigar. Slot machines have many names throughout the world. "Fruities", short for fruit machine due to the pictures of fruit on the reels is common in England, while in Australia and New Zealand they are known as "pokies", short for poker machine, In Scotland they are known as "puggies", although no one seems sure why, apart from it has something to do with an organ grinder's monkey.

Answer: Macau

The city of Macau became a gambling destination while a colony of Portugal, who legalised casino gambling in 1962 before transferring the rights to the city back to China in 1999. While gambling is tightly regulated in mainland China, it has continued to flourish in Macau and the gambling industry here is seven times larger than that of Las Vegas.
The Venetian Macao casino was, when it opened in 2007 the largest casino in the world until it was surpassed in 2009 by the WinStar World Casino in Oklahoma, USA.

Answer: Mississippi

Powerball began in 1992 and although several states didn't take part initially, most have since joined, with Mississippi joining in 2020, leaving Alaska, Hawaii, Alabama, Utah and Nevada as the non participants. In 2005, a lucky resident of Medford, Oregon scooped a jackpot of $340 million (£306 million).

Answer: Liechtenstein

Mario Frick, then prime minister of Liechtenstein bought the first ever online lottery ticket and the draw took place in the capital city of Vaduz. The numbers were drawn by Liechtenstein's first Olympic bobsleigh competitor, Caroline Burdet.

Answer: Mahjong

A "husband" or "messire" in mahjong is a player who takes either more or less than the required 16 tiles at the beginning of a game.
The winner of the wager in mahjong depends on where the winning tile is drawn from. If the winner draws it himself from the wall, the other players all pay him. If however it is drawn from within the wall, then just the player that discarded it pays.
If a player is a "husband", he must play the game, but is not permitted to win. He must however pay any agreed wager.

Answer: Venice

The Ridotto was opened in 1638 by the Great Council of Venice as a way to facilitate controlled gambling during the Venetian carnival. Unfortunately it proved too successful and was closed by the city government in 1774 as it was believed to be impoverishing the local gentry.

Answer: Win

Revell placed his money on red and after what must have been an agonising wait for the wheel to stop spinning, watched as it ended with the ball on seven red.
He doubled his money and walked away with $270,600 (£244,000), with which he presumably bought stuff to replace everything he sold.