At the beginning of the year the lottery begins at 1000 credits. During the week, payments for trips to the bathroom, penalties, tardies, and the like are added to the total. Students purchase lottery tickets for 50 credits each. I only allow them to buy 2 at the most. The total amount collected from the purchase of the tickets is also added to the lottery amount. They write their names on a piece of paper and choose 3 numbers between 1 and 6, for example 3-6-1, for each ticket purchased. After all of the tickets are collected and verified (I still charge students for their ticket if they have chosen invalid numbers; also, I check to make sure those participating can afford to) I roll a 6 sided die 3 times (There are two privileges available here: the person who collects the lottery tickets and the person who picks up the die and calls out the number). After each roll I write the number on the board, nice and big. Last, I check the numbers for a winner.
If there is more than one winner, they share the pot. If there is no winner, the pot stays and is added to during the following week, ending with an additional 1000 credits from me. The children will beg for a second lottery when there is no winner. I don’t do it, even if there has not been a winner for a long time. Eventually there will be a winner. That’s the way it is in real life. The amounts for the lottery need to increase in proportion to the growth of the economy. It would be silly to have a 3500 credit lottery pot when the poorest student has 150,000 credits and the richest has 28,000,000.