"Sportloto": made in the USSR. Life under the sign of "Sportloto". How the Soviet people played a game of chance (6 photos) How it happened

Targeted contributions from the lottery will be sent to the budget of the Russian Federation.

Story

Sportloto is a state lottery in the USSR. The first draw of “Sportloto” took place on October 20, 1970 in the Moscow Central House of Journalists, the profits from the drawings (half of the proceeds from ticket sales) were spent on financing Soviet sports. One and a half million tickets took part in the drawing. The winner was a Muscovite whose profession (engineer-economist) was directly related to numbers. Her winnings amounted to 5,000 rubles. This is 3 years of work of a Soviet engineer, or 62 pairs of imported ones women's boots, or the cost of a new Moskvich car.

The lottery ticket was filled out manually. In the tables it was necessary to cross out the playing numbers with crosses. In the 80s, one ticket had two independent options, each of which could win the draw. The cut-off part A remained with the player, and parts B and C were dropped into the yellow box of the Sportloto kiosk. The ticket cost 60 kopecks.

After the success of the “Sportloto 6 out of 49” lottery, new formula- "5 out of 36", and "6 out of 49" was later converted into "6 out of 45". Each drawing involved up to 10,000,000 tickets, and sometimes even more, which is an absolute record in history Soviet lotteries. Notes discussing winning strategies were published in periodicals, for example, in the journal Science and Life. During the years of the USSR, the program was broadcast live on Central Television, hosted by Tatyana Malyshenko. In the 1970s, the 6 for 49 draw was held on Wednesdays and the 5 for 36 was held on Saturdays. In the early 1980s, both draws began to be held on Saturdays, and from the mid-1980s on Sundays. In the 1990s it aired on the RTR channel (mid-1990s) and on Channel One TV (1993-1998).

When interest in the lottery began to decline, for the winners Grand Prize- ten thousand rubles, an additional bonus was provided - the right to an extraordinary purchase of a Volga passenger car. Prize winners living in rural areas, could, at their choice, purchase a Volga or a Soviet SUV Niva out of turn. Given the shortage of passenger cars in the USSR, this fueled interest in the lottery.

“Sportprognoz” is a sports lottery that appeared in the second half of the 80s in which you had to guess the outcome of sports matches. It was somewhat similar to bookmaker bets. A blank form cost 2 kopecks. Participation in the lottery was paid for when returning the ticket to the Sportloto kiosk.

“KENO-Sportloto” is an experiment in the “6 (+1 called preferential ball) out of 56” system, which began in the 1990s. After relative unpopularity, the rules were changed to the existing ones (1 to 10 numbers out of 80 are marked, winnings are fixed).

Olympic lottery

In accordance with the application book, in support of the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, the Government of the Russian Federation issued Order No. 1318-r dated September 14, 2009, on the basis of which All-Russian state lotteries began to be held.

The organizer of the lotteries was the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation. The operator is Sportloto LLC.

Sportloto LLC also became an official partner of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee and the only lottery company in Russia that has the right to use elements of Olympic and Paralympic symbols.

In February 2011, 10 instant lotteries Sportloto: " Sports season"", "Sports Without Borders", "Russian Games", "Forward to Victory", "Peaks of Success", "Faster, Higher, Stronger!", " Fun starts", "Patterns on Ice", "Sports Festival", "Let's go!". Ticket prices ranged from 20 to 100 rubles. The prize fund was more than 50%.

In October 2011, the first draws of “Sportloto 6 out of 49” and “Keno-Sportloto” were held. “Sportloto 6 out of 49” is a lottery based on the classic formula, popular back in the USSR. Now this lottery draws are held daily at 09:30, 15:30 and 21:30 Moscow time. "Keno-Sportloto" is a numerical draw lottery. On this moment, draws are held every 15 minutes, and the maximum win is 10,000,000 rubles.

By the time of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in February 2014, more than 10,000,000 people took part in Sportloto lotteries.

Rules of the game

Tickets can be purchased at various retail outlets sales or on specialized websites.

“Sportloto 6 out of 49” is a revived legend of Soviet times. This is a numerical lottery, to participate in which you just need to fill out a game coupon and pay lottery receipt.

The goal of the game is to guess from 3 to 6 numbers in one playing field. To participate in the draw, you need to fill out the game coupon and pay the lottery receipt. There are 6 fields in the game coupon.

The minimum lottery bet “Sportloto 6 out of 49” includes 6 numbers in one playing field and costs 20 rubles. If a participant chooses from 6 to 17 numbers on the playing field, such a bet is called expanded and includes not one, but several combinations of 6 numbers. The probability and amount of winning on a spread bet is significantly higher.

The game has an additional bonus ball, which is issued by lottery equipment after formation winning combination of 6 numbers. If his number coincides with one of the selected numbers in the bet of a participant in the draw, in which 5 numbers have already been guessed, the amount of winnings awarded to the participant for 5 numbers will increase. The bonus ball belongs to the same set of balls as the main one game combination. Therefore, only in “Sportloto 6 of 49” are cases possible when on one ticket 6 numbers can be guessed 2 times (more precisely, 6 numbers of the winning combination + the combination “5 numbers + bonus ball”).

"KENO-Sportloto" is a numerical lottery that is held in real time every 15 minutes. The lottery has 42 categories with fixed winnings (from 60 to 5,000,000 rubles) and a super prize - 10,000,000 rubles. The participant indicates in advance how many numbers (from 1 to 10 numbers) he is going to guess. The minimum ticket price is 60 rubles and does not depend on the choice of game option. Applying a multiplier increases both the cost of the ticket and the size of the potential winnings. Most big win- 10 million rubles - provided if the participant guessed 10 numbers out of 10 using a 10-fold multiplier. A random number generator (RNG) is used to determine the winning combination.

"Matchball" is a numerical lottery that is held in live every day at 20:00 Moscow time. The cost of one ticket is from 50 rubles. The participant chooses from 5 numbers out of 50 in the first field and from 1 number out of 11 in the second. To win a super prize (from 10 million rubles), you need to guess 5 numbers in the first field and 1 number (the so-called “bonus ball”) in the second. In the remaining 9 prize categories, tickets where at least two numbers in the first field are guessed or a bonus ball are won.

Raffle

The drawing was held once a week, at first, usually during a break in a sports broadcast. Then it began to be held on Sundays. The lottery was carried out first using a vertical rectangular lottery machine, then using an electromechanical horizontal drum lottery machine, which was driven by removing a metal knitting needle from a cell of numbers, after which balls with numbers rotated in the lottery machine, which then fell into the chute one after another, determining the numbers - winners. The last ball stopped in a plastic basket. In some episodes there was also a mechanical lottery drum in the studio, which was rotated by members circulation commission and determined the lucky coupons sent by viewers, to whose addresses cash prizes were sent in an envelope.

As musical accompaniment used the melody Puffed Corn/Popcorn performed by the ensemble under the direction of Meshcherin and musical compositions Latvian group "Zodiac".

Until February 2013, a special numbering was used for each subsequent draw, where the first two digits indicated the number of years that have passed since 1990, the second two digits indicated the week number in the current year, and the last digit is the day of the week on which the draw is held. Since March 2013, continuous numbering of circulations has been used.

Nowadays

Today Sportloto includes the games “Sportloto 6 of 49”, “KENO Sportsloto”, as well as 10 instant lotteries (“Sports Season”, “Sports Without Borders”, “Russian Games”, “Forward to Victory”, “Peaks of Success”, “Faster, higher, stronger!”, “Fun starts”, “Patterns on Ice”, “Sports Festival”, “Let's go!”).

“Sportloto 6 out of 49” is a game based on the classic formula, draws of which have been held three times a day since March 2013. Draw start times are 9:30, 15:30, 21:30 Moscow time.

In the 23113th draw of “Sportloto 6 of 49”, which took place on June 2, 2013, for the first time in modern history A super prize was drawn for this game. Its amount was 10,000,000 rubles. The second largest prize went to the winner of the 23168th distribution circulation games (April 26, 2014), its amount is 2,241,003 rubles.

Instant non-draw lotteries "Sportloto" are available both at lottery kiosks and online, on the website of the operator TD "Stoloto". Maximum possible gain today is 3,000,000 rubles.

Sportsloto is official lottery XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi.

Based on the Order of the Government of the Russian Federation dated September 14, 2009 No. 1318-r, Sportloto LLC is the operator state lotteries held in support of the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games 2014 in Sochi. The organizer of the lotteries is the Ministry of Finance of Russia. Sportloto is the only lottery company in Russia that has the right to use elements of the Olympic symbols.

Draws for the KENO-Sportloto game are held every day every 15 minutes (from 02:00 to 06:00 Moscow time - technical break). The minimum ticket price is 10 rubles, which is one of the lowest among state lotteries. Winning combination determined by the generator random numbers. Winnings are fixed, from 20 to 1,000,000 rubles.

Winning strategy

In the article “Psychology of Sportloto”, published in the journal “Science and Life” for 1980, No. 1, a strategy was discussed in which it was proposed to play against the crowd - that is, choose numbers in a way that a typical player is unlikely to choose, for example, located in one row, column or diagonally. Thus, it was proposed to reduce the number of competitors in case of winning.

Many gamblers, both abroad and in Russia, have attracted and are attracting mathematical apparatus (in particular, probability theory) in an attempt to create winning strategy for numerical lotteries, which include Sportsloto and the world-famous Keno lottery. Most of them are based on multi-level analysis of a large sample of the results of previous circulations (as, for example, Georg Goldman proposes to do).” warn:

In December 1977, the 7th concert of Alexander Shevalovsky with the Oberton ensemble was recorded:

If you are unlucky in the lottery, then you will definitely be lucky in Sportloto.
Sportsloto, play everywhere, play, don’t swear,
Know that there are more chances to part with money here.
That’s why it’s Sportloto, there’s no more exciting game,
Know that you pay the money - someone wins.
It’s not for nothing that there are four circulations per week,
To knock you down without a knife, know that you are a brave player.
You voluntarily and peacefully pay your income tax,
Play, don’t think about the catch - you are a profitable player.
If the forehead is like a chisel, or an oak from nature,
Play more Sportsloto, wait for your weather.

Mikhail Boyarsky - “Olympic joke”: “I myself am still playing Sportloto.”

Verka Serduchka, song “Everything will be fine”:

Life is like Sportsloto!
I fell in love, but not that
Won the jackpot in love
I took a closer look - idiot!

Sometimes people compare live draws (for example, choosing an option number for final school exams) with Sportsloto.

The first draw of Sportloto took place on October 20, 1970. Interestingly, about 1.5 million cards were sold for it, and in just a week. Subsequently, up to 10 million tickets were sold per circulation.

For the first draw of the Gosloto lottery 6 out of 45, which took place on November 10, 2008, 159,876 tickets were sold, 737,495 bets. Less, of course, but still quite a decent result.

But the start of the lottery did not always go so smoothly. For example " Russian Lotto» special sales I can’t boast about the first edition; everything happened completely differently:

« Our mistake was that we started the business incorrectly. Of course, we had to start with organizing a ticket sales network. For example, English national lottery in the very first days it sold several million pounds worth of tickets. But more than twenty-six thousand terminals for selling tickets were pre-installed there, even before the launch of the lottery itself.

We had none of this. We have already announced the first edition, Malik paid television for the studio. He was deceived everywhere because he did not know the prices: he paid as much as they said. Huge amounts of money were made for the production and display of advertising videos on the TV channel. Almost all the money was spent, and there was simply no one to distribute tickets among the population.

And we made a completely unimaginable move. Malik took all his remaining money, I contributed another two hundred thousand dollars from mine, and we ourselves bought out the entire first draw of the lottery! All our employees were sent to the entrances to the metro and to the streets to hand out tickets to all passers-by, offering only one thing: turn on the TV and play Russian Lotto with the presenter. Our employees distributed some of the tickets in large stores. ……

For the next edition, we had already purchased twenty-seven thousand tickets. People started looking for tickets and buying several at a time, especially those who won. Again this money was not enough, and again I had to add my hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The third edition has already brought fifty-five thousand tickets sold. And although according to the rules prize fund the lottery accounted for half of the income from sales - we threw all the money at the prize fund and again got out of the situation. Cashiers in department stores were involved: a ticket cost a dollar, for each ticket sold they received twenty cents in their pocket. And each edition our ticket sales practically doubled.”
A. Tarasov, “Millionaire”

Exciting start to the lottery, isn't it? Almost 17 years have passed, and “Russian Lotto” is still alive. Could those who received free tickets from the first drawing think that this lottery would last for so long?

I think it’s interesting to see what the tickets for the first draws of many of our lotteries looked like. Both currently active and already forgotten.

So, the first editions. Current lotteries:

"Russian Lotto", Company "Milan"
The first circulation took place on October 16, 1994 on the RTR channel. Initially, only Moscow residents could take part in the lottery, but in 1996 it became all-Russian.

"Golden Key", CJSC "Interlot"
The first circulation took place on December 20, 1997 on the TV Center channel. The first presenter is a girl, Svetlana. The presenter Victor Bertier, who was practically associated with the Golden Key lottery, appeared later.

August 1999, direct line with the participation of the Directorate of the Golden Key:
- From Moscow Natalia. IN Lately a lot appeared different lotteries. How is the “Golden Key” different from them?
- Firstly, our lottery is the most honest: play and you will definitely win. And secondly, and you probably know this - all lotteries are the same. But in “Golden Key” people win more often.

I don’t have the 1st edition ticket yet, so the scan is from here:

It is worth noting that the TV Bingo Show lottery was not even the second to appear (Russian Lotto and Golden Key existed for several years), however, it deservedly took third place. For the first edition, 394 thousand tickets were sold, and for the 10th edition, 850 thousand tickets have already been sold. By the way, it was in this lottery that the Mukhametzyanov family from Ufa won $1 million in 2001. For a long time it was the most big win in Russia, the record was broken only in 2008, when Albert Begrakyan won 100 million rubles (almost $3 million) in Gosloto. Now Bingo Show has lost a lot of ground...

The tickets of the first circulations did not differ in variety; almost the only difference was that the circulation number was stamped. Here is a scan of the 5th edition

"Trump Card", "Interlot"
The first drawing took place on September 23, 2006. The only lottery that uses card lottery.

"Russian Troika", CJSC "Interlot"
The first drawing took place on August 4, 2007. Presenter - LADUSHKAN
“Russian Troika” is the only lottery in Russia in which one ticket can win 5 times in one draw! (from description)

But not all lotteries lived happily ever after. Sometimes they ended due to problems or miscalculations of the organizers, and sometimes vice versa - the organizers were looking for new forms or opportunities, but apparently these innovations did not justify their hopes.

Lotteries that are no longer with us

Every week, two players are invited to the studio where the lottery is held - and they are not billiard professionals at all. Athletes, politicians, businessmen, cultural and artistic figures, pop stars and other people famous throughout the country will meet behind the green cloth. Thus, at the presentation of the lottery, the game was played by the head of the Agency for physical culture and sports Vyacheslav Fetisov and coach of the Russian national tennis team Shamil Tarpishchev. Itriga is preserved until last moment, because only the balls pocketed by the winner determine the winners (from the announcement)

"Bingo Lotto 12 out of 24", Lottery Trading Company LLC
The first drawing took place on February 24, 2008.

"Schedroe Lotto", LLC "Gaming and Lottery Technologies"
December 31, 2001 - February 2003, Ren-TV

In the first four months, ROSTO’s budget received over two million rubles from ticket sales. However, due to a number of mistakes made by the operator at the initial stage of development of this project, and unsatisfactory knowledge of the peculiarities of the Russian lottery market, the investor encountered serious financial problems, which led first to delays in the payment of winnings and other settlements of obligations, and then to a complete stop of circulation.
(from an interview with Vladimir Dranishnikov, Deputy Chairman of the Central Council of ROSTO (DOSAAF))

In the absence of slot machines and the casino, the main entertainment of the Soviet people was the Sportloto lottery, whose birthday is celebrated today. The first circulation took place on October 20, 1970 in Moscow in Central house journalist. In total, about 1.5 million tickets were sold. The largest win went to engineer-economist Lyubov Morozova from Moscow. She received an amount of 5 thousand rubles. - it was enough to buy a new car or a cooperative apartment.

The builders of communism indulged in excitement every ten days. At a strictly defined time, Soviet citizens sat down in front of the blue screens of Elektronika and, on command, began to cross out numbers.

The country has been playing Sportloto for 20 years. Later, in an interview, its creator and permanent boss Viktor Ivonin admitted that in Soviet times the lottery brought in 500 billion rubles, i.e. 85-90% of the budget of advanced Soviet sports. So it turns out that the Soviet people lost for a reason, but for the benefit of the fatherland, or rather of domestic sports.

How it was...

Sportloto drawings were held in sports palaces, stadiums and large enterprises in various cities. Every soviet man I had to see for myself: they play here honestly, without deception.

First, members of the circulation commission spun the transparent drum and took balls out of it. Then they introduced a mechanical lottery machine with automatic ejection of winning balls, which was soon replaced by a pneumatic machine. However, Soviet citizens did not like the pneumotron: they complained, flooding Central Television with letters, that throwing out the ball using a jet of compressed air made the game less spectacular. Soon pneumotrons were again replaced by lottery machines.

In 1985, another improvement was made to lottery machines: the winning balls did not fall out together, but one at a time. And in 1986, the “6 out of 49” lottery was replaced with “6 out of 45”, which increased the likelihood of winning. At the same time, the winners had the opportunity to purchase a passenger car without waiting in line. It was almost as important as money. By the way, the fact that the mere possession of money by a Soviet citizen did not mean anything - it was necessary to obtain the right to spend it, that is, to gain access to goods - was skillfully used in other lottery projects.

For example, in the Sprint lottery, in addition to cash prizes (up to 2 thousand rubles), you could win things. Car, motorcycle with sidecar, bicycle, boat, refrigerator. By comparison, in the 1930s you could win a tractor or a purebred bull in the lottery.

Lottery gold

In 1990, the family crossing out of “Sportloto” was replaced by instant erasing of the protective layer with a coin. In 1991, Olympic Committee officials tried to revive the lottery by creating the large-scale Lotto Million project, but the $80 million allocated by the Ministry of Finance quickly ran out and the project died.

Today, some semblance of “Sportloto” exists only in Belarus. Two games, permitted at the end of 2004 (before that, there were no lotteries in the post-Soviet republic at all) - “SuperLoto” and “Your Lotto” - have already brought about $10 million to the country’s budget.

As some publications note, large cash prizes are rare there. For some reason, Belarusians prefer to win cars, gold bars and apartments. Over the several years of existence of these lotteries, seven kg of gold were given out to the people.

From a “bourgeois relic” to a source of income

Winners receive more or less large winnings in banks. According to the Law "On Lotteries", receive winnings instant lottery on site is possible only if we're talking about about an amount less than 1000 rubles. The winnings must wait three and a half years for the recipient. Moreover, the lotteries themselves await the owner happy ticket six months, and then transfer the money to a special deposit account. And after three and a half years, unclaimed funds go to the state budget.

The material was prepared by the online editorswww.rian.ru based on information from RIA Novosti Agency and other sources

The first draw of Sportloto took place on October 20, 1970, at the Central House of Journalists. The format was based on the game keno, one of the world's oldest numerical lotteries. The Soviet version used the “6 out of 49” formula. The game immediately became popular; 1.5 million tickets were sold for the first edition, and within a week. This is all the more surprising since only Muscovites took part in the first draw; other cities joined the game gradually. Subsequently, each drawing accounted for up to 10 million tickets.

They decided to invite famous athletes to be members of the circulation commission; this later became a tradition. In the first draw, the drawing was followed by the famous football and hockey player Vsevolod Bobrov, commentator Nikolai Ozerov and his colleague Nina Eremina, a former basketball player.

The winner of the first drawing was engineer-economist from Moscow Lidia Morozova, who received the main prize - 5,000 rubles. For the country average salary which at that time did not exceed 200 rubles, the amount was truly gigantic. You could use your winnings to buy a new Moskvich car.

Sportloto card, 7th edition 1970, part “A”

Subsequent circulations were carried out through. At that time, they resembled the draws of a cash and clothing lottery: members of the commission spun a transparent drum and with their hands took out balls with winning numbers. At first, tickets were sold in Moscow, the second city, in February, became Baku

Reverse side of the Sportloto card “6 out of 49”, 7th edition 1970

In 1971, the distribution network expanded: in March Yerevan was added, then (we indicate in the same order as we connected) - Odessa. Lvov, Kyiv, Tallinn, Zaporozhye, Sverdlovsk, Rostov-on-Don and Leningrad.

In the first 12 months, 70 million Sportloto cards were sold; participants received winnings worth 10,265,670 rubles - half the amount received from the sale of lottery tickets. The first year brought many big wins. Despite the fact that 5,000 rubles were paid for the correct six (very big money at that time), almost 10 people.

Also, in the first year it was possible to create 17 zonal Sportloto departments, and by the end of 1973 it was planned to cover all regions of the country

"Sportloto-2"

On October 20, 1973, a second game appeared - Sportloto-2, the circulation of which took place after the main one. The “Sportloto-2” card cost 60 kopecks, since it took part in two draws held on the same day, thereby increasing the chances of winning. And drawings began to be carried out using a lottery machine, which was designed and built Chief Engineer Väino Paasik and mechanic Kalju Turja from SKB Academy of Sciences Estonian SSR. The device they created mechanically mixed and automatically extracted the winning balls.

On January 10, 1974, draws of the Sportloto lotteries began to be held in Moscow, at the studio Central television and broadcast on the first program and the Vostok and Orbita systems, and millions of lottery fans got the opportunity to watch the draws on TV. The musical accompaniment was Gershon Kingsley's melody “Puffed Corn” performed by an ensemble led by Meshcherin.

Sportloto 5 of 36

On August 14, 1976, the first draw of a new sports-numbers lottery with the formula “5 out of 36”, called “Saturday Sports Lotto,” took place. Cards from this lottery took part in a draw that consisted of two drawings held weekly on Saturdays.

Announcement of lottery 5 out of 36 (first name “Saturday Sportloto”) in the newspaper “Soviet Sport”

New circulation devices were put into operation - pneumotrons, in which the mixing of balls was carried out by a jet of compressed air. “Saturday Sports Lotto” was intended to finance the XXIII Summer olympic games in Moscow in 1980. 36 Olympic sports were assigned conditional sport numbers.

“Saturday Sports Lotto” card, part “A”. 13th and 14th edition, 1970

Additional ball and other innovations

In 1977, (from the 37th draw), in order to increase the popularity of the “6 out of 49” lottery, an additional bonus ball was played in it, which increased the likelihood of winning the lottery. In August 1978, all numerical lotteries were transferred to non-draw cards. The maximum winning amount was increased from 5,000 to 10,000 rubles. Draws of the “6 out of 49” and “5 out of 36” lotteries (formerly “Saturday Sports Lotto”) began to be held every Saturday, the drawing was carried out using a pneumatic machine.

In January 1981, another change in the conditions of the game took place, the purpose of which was to make it more exciting and offer participants more options for filling out tickets. The Sportloto draw began to be carried out not from four, but from two draws - one for “6 out of 49”, the other for “5 out of 36”. The ticket itself has also changed; another field has been added so that you can participate in two options (combinations)

“Sportloto” form 5 out of 36, for 2 options

Taking into account the numerous wishes of the players who asked to return to the previous mechanical method of mixing balls, the circulation machines were replaced on January 1, 1982. Draws began to be carried out on two new lottery machines producing simultaneous extraction five or six balls with winning numbers. In January 1985, they were improved, and they began to remove the balls not all together, but one by one.

Sportloto 6 out of 45

Since January 1986, to increase the probability of winning (by 30%), the number lottery "6 out of 49" was replaced by number lottery"6 out of 45"

Archive of lottery draws “6 out of 49”, 1970 - 1985

Archive of lottery draws “5 out of 36”, 1976 - 1992

Archive of lottery draws “6 out of 45”, 1986 - 1992

The circulation data is not complete yet, it will be gradually entered

Records and interesting facts

Lottery “5 out of 36” (1981-1992)

• The maximum number of options that took part in one lottery draw is: 28 672 799 (1991, 15th printing)
• Maximum winnings for 5 numbers in one “5 out of 36” draw - 414 (1990, 17th printing).
• In the same draw, the minimum winning amount for 5 numbers was fixed - 1289 rubles The fact is that in the 17th draw of 1990 the same combination came up (3, 5, 12, 16 and 30) as in the 28th draw of 1988. Then 5 numbers matched 22 options, the winnings amounted to 10 thousand rubles.
• Number 9 was dropped 5 times consecutively from the 29th to the 33rd edition of 1983.
• Number 10 was dropped 5 times consecutively from the 31st to the 35th edition of 1985.
• By 4 times numbers 32 (18-21 circulations of 1981), 29 (from the 37th to 40th editions of 1983), 26 (47-50, 1986), 18 (10-13, 1988) and again 29 (32- 35, 1989).
• 4 numbers in a row appeared in the 8th draw of 1982 (combination 9, 10, 11, 12, 32), in the 15th draw of 1984 (1, 14, 15, 16, 17) and in the 32nd draw of 1987 ( 4, 8, 9, 10, 11).

Lottery "6 out of 49" (1970-1985)

• Number 18 was dropped 5 times consecutively from the 51st edition in 1977 to the 3rd edition in 1978.
• Number 41 dropped out 5 times consecutively from the 45th to the 49th edition of 1979.
• Number 30 was dropped 5 times consecutively from the 3rd to the 7th printing in 1981.
• 4 numbers in a row appeared in the 8th draw of “Sportloto-2” in 1975 (combination 18, 31, 32, 33, 34, 45), in the 47th draw of “Sportloto-2” in 1978 (12, 16, 34, 35, 36 , 37) and in the 16th edition of 1980 (15, 24, 34, 35, 36, 37).
• Taking into account the preferential (seventh) ball 4 numbers in a row appeared in the 35th draw of Sportloto-2 in 1979 (combination 2, 21, 23, 24, 38, 42 + 22).

Lottery "6 out of 45" (1986-1992)

• The largest number of options that took part in one draw of the “Sportloto - 6 out of 45” lottery - 3 million 449 thousand 315 (52nd edition 1991)!
• The maximum winning amount for 5 numbers (with an option price of 30 kopecks) is 9 416 rubles in the 34th edition of 1986. This is more than the winnings for all 6 numbers matched in the 31st draw in 1990 ( 9 057 rubles)!
• Number 12 was dropped 5 times consecutively from the 4th to the 8th printing in 1989.
• By 4 times numbers 7 (14-17 editions of 1986), 11 (from 47th to 50th edition 1987), 7 again (from 48th to 51st edition of the same year 1987), 33 (8-11) , 1989) and 8 (32-35, 1990).
• 4 numbers in a row appeared in the 16th draw of 1987 (combination 18, 33, 34, 35, 36, 43), in the 20th draw of the same 1987 (27,28,29,30,37,44) and in the 44th draw 1992 (12, 21, 41, 42, 43, 44).

Records were collected by Denis Denisenko ( [email protected]) in 2008-2010. The original version of his page is no longer supported; the information remains in

“The first draw with the formula “6 out of 49” was played as an experiment,” recalled Viktor Ivonin, former head of the Main Directorate of Sports Lotteries of the USSR. – 49 sports were given conditional serial numbers, and you had to mark six numbers with a cross. 1.5 million tickets were sold for the run.

The experiment was a success. On average, up to 10 million tickets were sold per circulation in the country. “Sportloto” quickly became super popular. If lottery tickets Sberbank was given as a bonus, but people immediately believed in Sportloto.

“We invited the queen of equestrian sports, Elena Petushkova, to one of the first television shows (they appeared on the air in January 1974,” said Ivonin. “Members of the drawing commission had to inspire confidence, so the presence at the drawings of famous athletes who were respected by the country became an unchanging tradition of Sportloto.

Of course, Sportloto was far from the first domestic lottery. The first appeared in Rus' already in 1700, and even in Soviet time the state did not disdain to play games of chance with its subjects.

– At first, the Bolsheviks decided that all this was not for us, they say, the machinations of the bourgeoisie and so on. And then the attitude changed - money was needed,” said Gosloto representative Mikhail Zharkov.

The Osoaviakhim lottery draws were especially popular among the red proletarians. Of course, if everything goes well, you could win not only a flight on an airship over Kharkov and Moscow, but also trip around the world. And a ticket for the First All-Union Aviation Lottery gave a chance to get a more practical than a foreign voyage, a powered thresher or a breeding stallion. The ticket cost only 30 kopecks - the same as the Sportloto ticket later.

Play for money

The first Sportloto draw took place in the Central House of Journalists, which was closed for special reasons. That “banquet” was attended by coach Vsevolod Bobrov, commentator Nikolai Ozerov, sports journalist Naum Dymarsky and world basketball champion Nina Eremina - members of the circulation commission. It was they who recorded the first gigantic win - from an engineer-economist from Moscow, Lidia Morozova.

“She guessed all 6 numbers out of 49 and received 5,000 rubles,” explained Victor Ivonin. – Later, the maximum winnings doubled to 10 thousand rubles. The average salary in the Union in those years was 200 re.

In general, no more than 10 people a year received the maximum winnings in “6 out of 49”.

Don't give a damn

Novice cybernetics calculated all combinations in advance on antediluvian computers, and systems mathematicians derived “win-win” formulas for victory. So, an electronics engineer, and at that time a simple student of Baumanka, Konstantin Timoshenko, with the help of simple calculations, managed to earn 50-60 re per month on Sportloto - this was more than a scholarship!

But the Olympic Committee earned the most from Sportloto, to which a third of the income fell. On the advertising posters they wrote: “If you win, the sport wins!” More than 80 percent of the entire sports budget of the Union was brought in by Sportloto - 500 billion rubles over 20 years! There was enough for the 1980 Olympics and for local infrastructure.

“Our largest sports facilities were built with Sportloto’s money,” said Georgy Kanukov, head of the Rostov Department of Sportloto. – The rowing canal and the school of the Olympic reserve in Rostov, the athletics arena in Shakhty, the swimming pool in Azov...

If it weren't for the lottery, the country would be missing many sporting victories. But in the 90s, Sportloto closed down. And the future Olympics in Sochi will no longer be held at the expense of the lottery, but at our expense.