Russian Lotto By Lorianna on Jun 13, 2008 - Updated Oct 15, 2011

I inherited this beautiful old set from my dear Russian grandma. She was the one who taught me how to play it, too, and I remember spending hours and hours of fun with this game. I played with kids and adults, family and visitors. Everyone loved it.

In Russia, the lotto has been popular for centuries. The principle of it is very simple. The game consists of large cards with three rows of numbers on them and 90 wooden chips shaped as barrels, each one with a number as well, from 1 to 90. Each player takes a random card; there can be two or more players. Then all the wooden barrels are placed in a sack, which gets a good shaking. Then a player who leads the game begins taking the barrels out of the sack one by one, without looking. Each time he calls out the number on the barrel, and everyone checks their cards to see whether they have this number. If a player has it, they announce so, and cover the number on the card. Whoever has all the card covered first, wins.

The game may sound simple, but you won't believe it how exciting and addicting it is. Based purely on chance, it denies strategy, yet there is usually one person who keeps winning, much to the annoyance of the rest. The game can be played for money as well, which I admit we did as kids (secretly from adults).

A contemporary set of Russian lotto that still looks very close to mine can be bought from www.Rus-Sell.com for $19 (+$16 shipping). Check it out, it is a time-tested classic!