Voltaire Used One Flaw in France's Lottery to Get Rich

In 1729, somebody kept winning the French government's lottery, month after month, and leaving jokes for the finance minister on the back of the tickets. It was Voltaire. And he was not breaking a single law. This is the true story of how a young mathematician named Charles-Marie de La Condamine spotted one badly written rule in a state lottery, and how a twice-jailed poet helped him build a syndicate and turn a dinner-party conversation into a fortune. It is a story about arithmetic, not luck: a lottery where a one-livre ticket had the same odds as a hundred-livre ticket. Along the way: a beating in a Paris street, a notary with whole books of tickets, a royal council deciding whether a poet had just robbed the King of France, and a watch business with the Empress of Russia among its customers. CHAPTERS 0:00 Jokes on the Winning Tickets 0:46 The Bastille, a Beating and Exile 2:38 A Dinner Party and a Mathematician 3:01 Why France Needed a Lottery 3:55 The Rule That Broke It 4:28 La Condamine's Plan 4:55 The Syndicate Wins 5:53 The Jokes That Gave Them Away 6:54 The Royal Council's Verdict 7:37 What Voltaire Did With the Money 8:42 La Condamine on the Amazon 9:03 A Village of Forty People 9:59 Europe's Most Famous Watch Salesman 11:00 A Hero's Return to Paris 11:33 This One Ends With a Town DISCLAIMER: Our content is educational and entertainment-based. It reflects historical events and publicly documented facts, and does not constitute investment advice, financial guidance, or a recommendation to buy or sell any asset. Always do your own research. SOURCES & FURTHER READING Roger Pearson, "Voltaire Almighty: A Life in Pursuit of Freedom" (Bloomsbury, 2005) Roger Pearson, "Voltaire's Luck", Lapham's Quarterly, vol. 9, no. 3 (2016) Ian Davidson, "Voltaire: A Life" (Profile Books, 2010) Ian Davidson, "Voltaire in Exile" (2004) Voltaire, "Commentaire historique sur les œuvres de l'auteur de la Henriade" (1776) Lottery ticket register, April 1729, Gallica / Bibliothèque nationale de France Smithsonian Magazine: "Voltaire: Enlightenment Philosopher and Lottery Scammer" Rodama, a blog of 18th-century & Revolutionary France: "Voltaire wins the lottery" and "Voltaire, watchmaker" Wikipedia: "Voltaire" and "Charles Marie de La Condamine" Know someone who loves a clever loophole, or a good true story about money? Share this video with them. #Voltaire #FinancialHistory #Lottery #History #Enlightenment #TheFFortune