The Year Massachusetts Sold Its Very First Lottery Ticket

The "new" New Bedford High School opened on Hathaway Boulevard in 1972. Urban renewal was going strong that year. Route 18 began weaving its way through the city. Interstate 195 still hadn't crossed the Acushnet River. John A. Markey began his 10-year reign as Mayor of New Bedford.

Don McLean's "American Pie" dominated the music charts in 1972, as did Elton John, Neil Diamond, Michael Jackson and Alice Cooper. Deliverance, The Godfather, and The Poseidon Adventure drove crowds to the movie theater.

Richard Nixon, the Vietnam War, and the Munich Olympic Games held our attention in 1972.

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I attended Normandin Junior High School in the North End of New Bedford that year – the "old" Normandin.

Something else happened in 1972 that would change the direction of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts forever. On March 22, 1972, four days after my 14th birthday, the Massachusetts Lottery sold its first lottery ticket.

The game's winning numbers were drawn at Boston's Faneuil Hall on April 6, 1972, and seven people won $50,000. When it began, the Massachusetts Lottery featured only one weekly drawing each Wednesday.

The Massachusetts Lottery was established through legislation in 1971, with proceeds intended to provide financial aid to local communities.

The Massachusetts Lottery says that since selling its first ticket in 1972, "The Lottery has generated over $149 billion in revenues, awarded over $105 billion in prizes returned over $32 billion in net profit to the Commonwealth for unrestricted local aid provided to cities and towns, and paid over $8.5 billion in commissions and bonuses to its statewide network of retailers."