Cartas de la Loteria de Paquito (which translates to Paquito Lottery Cards) were released by Editorial Juventud S.A. in Mexico in 1941. The Lottery Game Cards were issued as a free give-away item when returning a coupon to the publisher, found within the comic.
‘Loteria’, the Spanish word for Bingo/Lottery is a game of chance that originated in Italy in the mid-15th century and was introduced into Mexico in 1769. Loteria is the South American version of Bingo. Instead of using numbers on balls and boards, Loteria uses images on cards.
Every image on the Loteria Game Card has a character name. Up to 4 players can choose one of 4 player cards with each sheet designed with a different images. To start, the caller/cantor shuffles or scrambles their Caller Sheet character pieces in a bag. The caller then selects a character piece and announces it to the players by its name, periodically using a verse before reading the character or image selected. Each player locates the matching image on their Loteria Game Card that was announced and marks it off with a chip or other kind of marker.
In Mexico, it’s traditional to use Pinto Beans or small round river stones as markers. The winner is the first player that shouts ‘Loteria’ right after completing their Loteria Game Card or a previously agreed upon pattern (row, column or diagonal).
Each Lottery Game Card is published in color, made of thin cardboard with a total of 36 comic book characters featured across 4 separate game cards containing 9 profile images. These game cards can be seen below.
Some of the comic book characters found on the Loteria Game Cards include Mandrake the Magician, Lothar, Mickey Mouse, Bruce Nelson, Felix The Cat, Fanny Lee, Don Winslow, Frankenstein, Popeye, Oliva and more.
The Phantom was also featured as image number 4 under the title of ‘El Fantasma’, as he’s known in Mexico. The Phantoms love interest, Diana Palmer is also found on one of the Loteria Game Cards, image number 20.
A Caller Sheet character page was included in a Paquito comic by Editorial Juventud S.A. The Caller Sheet features the comic book characters found on the Loteria Game Cards and are designed to be cut-up and selected at random by the caller/cantor. The top section of this sheet can be seen below, with the heading ‘Cartas de la Loteria de Paquito’ found in the top margin.
The Phantom 