Risk-lovers paradise: Lotteries and risk-taking in the Low Countries, 1441-1700 Jeroen Putttevils University of Antwerp, Belgium This is a section of Gestione del rischio, insolvenza e bancarotta nel mondo premoderno (secc. XIII-XVIII) / Risk management, insolvency, and bankruptcy in the pre-modern world (13th-18th centuries)(DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2) by Angela Orlandi Firenze University Press Florence 2026 https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0963-2.29

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Various documents pertaining to lotteries in the Low Countries between 1441 and 1700 show that both lottery players and organizers saw the lottery as a form of risk, they “adventured” on it. Some players invested large sums of money and co-operated with one another in syndicates to spread their risks; the lottery organizers risked losing a lot of funds if their lottery did not attract enough revenue to cover its costs. Lotteries were about the domestication and popularisation of risk, to channel funds risk-loving lottery ticket buyers towards the coffers of the lottery organizers, whether they be governments, churches, or private entrepreneurs. Two and half centuries of lottery sources will be examined to investigate shifts in the discourse of risk that pertains to lotteries.

 lotteries risk-loving risk-mitigation Low Countries late medieval early modern

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