Historically, there were about fifteen lotteries, large and small, organised by Don Bosco and the first was in 1851, on behalf of the church of St Francis de Sales in Valdocco.
According to the law of 24 February 1820, prior governmental authorisation was required for any national lottery (Kingdom of Sardinia). So Don Bosco immediately set up an organising commission for the project, then forwarded the formal application to the General Finance Administrator, Cavalier Alessandro Pernati di Momo, a future senator and Minister for the Interior of the Kingdom, as well as a friend of the work at Valdocco.
In the request he indicated the needs of the Oratory, the names of the promoters and the entire “lottery plan” with all the formal aspects.
The positive outcome of the request came on 17 December 1851, sent by the then deputy mayor of the municipality of Turin Pietro Baricco, and already before Christmas Don Bosco was able to start collecting gifts for the lottery.
The Lottery included 3,251 items which,thanks to these, collected 76,000 lire.
Sources: salesianos.info, Bollettino Salesiano
