Gambling Has Finally Found Philately?

Not overlooking, just my memory chip was corrupted
But well spotted
recall suggests New Zealand as well with her "scratchy" issue.

Albeit, is that true gambling?
If you buy a stamp for postage, and you win by accident, maybe that's a free gift ?

Running through my database,
we have Benin Lottery Sc#C263 1977

Estonia Lottery Stamp 1999 3.10 + 1,90

South Africa SG#ZA1168 Standard Postage Lottery

China : Lottery Postcards 1982-1992

Lottery: A tax on people whom are bad at math

How about the inverted invert put out by the USPS a few years back. Spend $12 on a sheet of 6 hoping that you will find one of the few right-side-up Inverted Jenny sheets. The USPS was COUNTING on the gambler in all of us!

Two different animals. One is the stamps themselves being the instruments of a game of chance like a lottery ticket and the other being a scheme wherein the stamps themselves are irrelevant to the larger scam game. In the second the stamps could be replaced with baseball cards or matchbooks or underwear (well maybe that is a stretch).

Back in the 19th century there were some lottery tickets with revenues on them.

The current Princess of Wales sold a used set with sheer cover for a bit north of a paltry $125,000.00 at a charity auction.

Otherwise the expensive, investment grade ones, all used, run in the range of $1.3 to $30 Million.

Edit: And, because this is a philatelic forum:

The modern version is your instant message software prompting possible responses.

Getting back to lotteries - there's the Norway 1964 Lottery stamp

"Issued 1 June 1964 and on sale through 15 July 1964, as a fundraising device for the UN refugee program, these stamps were valid for use for domestic letters up to 20 grams, only 6 June 1964 through 10 August 1964. They were not valid for use to other countries, but such examples do exist. The stamp has three parts: at top, the stub (usually kept by the seller); in the center, the receipt kept by the buyer; and at bottom, the postage stamp. Covers normally and correctly bear only the bottom stamp portion. "

You can see all 3 parts here:

https://www.jaysmith.com/Lists/Norw...ps-1964.html