Insane Lotteries and Crazy Lotteries – We Can’t Make This Up!

Did you think you could only win cash prizes when you play the lottery? Think again! There are some insane lotteries out there which offer prizes that might shock you! In those crazy lotteries, you can win very unusual jackpots, if you could call them that. Read our review of the world’s strangest lottery games and see if you’re ready to purchase your tickets.

The Bacon Lottery

This one is not for vegetarians! They called this scratch-off lottery game "Bringin' Home the Bacon" and it was offered in 2015 by the Hoosier Lottery in Indiana. Can you imagine bacon-scented lottery tickets? The Indiana lottery sold them at $2 a ticket, giving players a chance to win $250 worth of bacon once a year for 20 years.

Actually, Indiana was not the first state with a taste for bacon. The New Hampshire Lottery also sold scratch-and-sniff bacon-flavoured lottery tickets, which apparently were quite popular!

Vegetarians, is there is hope? The Colorado Lottery once sold scratch-and-sniff tickets in scents of coffee, chocolate, and bouquet. According to officials there, these tickets were among the lottery's worst sellers.

The Sex Lottery

In 2014, Forget Dinner, a UK dating site, organised a Sex Lottery. Thousands of men and women signed up for a chance to win a dirty weekend in Brighton! Yes, the top prize was a one-night stand on the English seaside with a complete stranger. The lucky winners got an all-inclusive package for two in the Pelirocco Hotel. The suite had a mirror above the bed, and a Pole Dancing Area. That’s what we would call hitting the jackpot!

The Pope's Lottery

While some Catholic Church officials have stated that lottery draws are “immoral” and a form of “idol worship”, the Governatorate of Vatican City State runs an annual lottery to raise money for charity.

According to an official press release issued in November 2016, the funds collected in the 4th annual lottery for Pope Francis’ charities would assist those affected by the earthquakes that struck central Italy in late 2016, and also aid the homeless.

Apparently you don't even have to travel to the Vatican to purchase tickets! You can purchase them online, officials said. The drawing was held in February 2017. We’re saying our prayers for the next one!

The Speed Camera Lottery

How do you get drivers to slow down and obey speed limits? Enter them in a lottery draw if they’re good drivers. An idea suggested by Keith Richardson won Volkswagen’s The Fun Theory, a contest for ideas to make obeying speed limits fun. And then just a year later, his idea became a reality in Sweden. Introducing the Speed Camera Lottery!

Cameras on Sweden’s roads take photographs of passing drivers. If you happen to drive according to the speed limit, you were entered into the lottery. Cash prizes funded by drivers who paid fines for speeding!

Was the Speed Camera Lottery successful? According to the Swedish National Society for Road Safety, 22% more drivers than usual stick to the speed limit now and the average car speed dropped from 32 to 25 km/h! We’re going to drive carefully from now on!

The Tax Lottery

Do you pay your taxes in Poland? If so, you could win a prize! In October 2015, the Polish Finance Ministry launched the "National Receipt Lottery". Polish citizens were asked to mail in their VAT receipts for a chance to win a new car.

Poland introduced this lottery as an incentive for Poles to ask for receipts when purchasing goods and services. Other prizes offered in the lottery were laptops and tablets.

Poland was actually not the first country to launch a tax lottery. Similar lotteries in Portugal and Slovakia were reportedly huge successes! Participating in this lottery shouldn’t be all that taxing!

Insane Lotteries and Crazy Lotteries – what will they come up with next?

As you can see, you can play insane lotteries and you can play crazy lotteries, all of them offering very unusual prizes. There are people who dream they won the lottery, but probably they aren't many dreaming that they just won beer! And there are some horrible tales about lottery winners. Playing the lottery is meant to be fun, whether you buy official Powerball tickets or when you play Mega Millions online or play any of the other most exciting lotteries in the world. And it doesn't matter if you're just playing the lottery for a chance to win beer, bacon, or even sex!