© aau/MüllerImagine if everything suddenly changed tomorrow. If a single win turned your life completely upside down. Precisely this dream of a radical new beginning was the starting point for an international research project in which Angela Fabris has been collaborating with Norwegian, Dutch, German, British and American literary, historical and media scholars over the past four years. The result is the anthology ‘Lottery Fantasies, Follies, and Controversies’, which will be presented at the Utrecht University Centre for Early Modern Studies on Friday, 6 March. The project was generously funded by the Norwegian Research Council.

‘The lottery provides us with one of the most powerful fantasies imaginable’, says Angela Fabris, associate professor at the Department of Romance Studies at the University of Klagenfurt and co-editor of the book. ‘We are all familiar with this thought experiment: what would I do with the winnings? How would my life change overnight? The lottery invites us to dream – and to dream big!’
But there is more to this dream than just the prospect of wealth. Together with international colleagues, Fabris has investigated how the lottery developed in Europe – and how the desire for a big windfall found its way into literature, theatre, film and pop culture.
A look back at the 18th century shows just how closely gambling and social change were linked: ‘For the first time, social advancement became possible. People were no longer inevitably destined to remain poor,’ explains Fabris. Giacomo Casanova also contributed to making gambling popular in Europe – especially in Paris – starting in Italy.
An anecdote from Genoa is particularly fascinating: there, gambling was linked to political elections. 120 nobles competed – and people could bet on individual candidates. If the favourite won, the player also won. And there was even a social component: behind each nobleman and his number was a young girl lacking sufficient dowry. If ‘her’ candidate was elected, she received the financial means to fund her wedding. Gambling, politics and social welfare – all combined in one system.
The lottery also had a tremendous economic impact: when the state lottery was introduced in Venice in 1734, 37 new businesses opened within just three years. ‘Gambling also stimulated entrepreneurship,’ Fabris emphasises. Although most people lose, a few were actually able to turn their dreams into reality.
At the same time, gambling always carries with it a hint of the forbidden. ‘This reveals a certain double standard – on the part of both the church and the state,’ says Fabris. While the Catholic Church warned against gambling, it organised lotteries itself to finance charitable causes – and its own projects. States also find themselves caught between these two opposing forces: in Norway, for example, there is a state lottery – and at the same time public programmes to combat gambling addiction.
In her lecture in Utrecht, Fabris approaches the topic from the perspective of ‘homo ludens’, inspired by cultural historian Johan Huizinga: ‘Those who play enter a magical circle. This is exactly how casinos work – for a few hours, you can escape everyday life. It only becomes problematic when you are no longer able or willing to leave this circle.’
The book launch marks the end of the joint research project – but new doors are already opening for Angela Fabris. Among other things, she is now a member of the jury for the Benetton Foundation, which awards a prize to young researchers whose work focuses on gambling.
 

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Johanne Slettvoll Kristiansen, Marius Warholm Haugen und Angela Fabris (2026). Lottery Fantasies, Follies, and Controversies. A Cultural History of European Lotteries. Berlin: de Gruyter, https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783111445540/html.
Programme for the book launch

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Der Beitrag Dreaming of a whole new life: book about lottery fantasies presented in Utrecht erschien zuerst auf University of Klagenfurt.