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LOTTERIES
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LOTTERIES . The word lottery' has no very definite signification. It may be applied to any See also:process of determining prizes by See also:lot, whether the See also:object be amusement or gambling or public profit. In the See also:Roman Saturnalia and in the banquets of aristocratic See also:Romans the object was amusement; the guests received apophoreta. The same See also:plan was followed on a magnificent See also:scale by some of the emperors. See also:Nero gave such prizes as a See also:house or a slave. See also:Heliogabalus introduced an See also:element of absurdity—one See also:ticket for a See also:golden See also:vase, another for six flies. This See also:custom descended to the festivals given by the feudal and See also:merchant princes of See also:Europe, especially of See also:Italy; and it formed a prominent feature of the splendid See also:court hospitality of See also: The parlements frequently protested against it, but it had the support of See also:Mazarin, and L. See also:Phelypeaux, See also:comte de Pontchartrain, by this means raised the expenses of the See also:Spanish See also:Succession See also:War. See also:Necker, in his See also:Administration See also:des finances, estimates the public See also:charge for lotteries at 4,000,000 livres per annum. There were also lotteries for the benefit of religious communities and charitable purposes. Two of the largest were the Loteries de Piete and Des Enfans Trouves. These and also the See also:great Loterie de l'Ecole militaire were practically merged in the Loterie Royale by the See also:decree of 1776, suppressing all private lotteries in France. The See also:financial basis of these larger lotteries was to take -hths for expenses and benefit, and return -the to the public who subscribed. The calculation of chances had become a See also:familiar See also:science. It is explained in detail by Caminade de See also:Castres in Enc. meth. finances, ii. s.v. " Loterie." The names of the winning See also:numbers in the first See also:drawing were (1) extrait, (2) ambe, (3) terne, (4) quaterne, (5) quine. After this there were four drawings called primes gratuites. The extrait gave fifteen times the See also:price of the ticket; the quine gave one 1 The word " lottery " is directly derived from Ital. lotteries, cf. Fr. loterie, formed from lotto, lot, See also:game of See also:chance. " Lot " is in origin a See also:Teutonic word, adopted into Romanic See also:languages. In O. Eng. it appears as hlot, cf. Dutch lot, Ger. Loos, See also:Dan. See also:lod, &c. The meaning of the Teutonic See also:root hleut from which these words have derived is unknown. Primarily lot " meant the object, such as a disk or See also:counter of See also:wood, a pebble, See also:bean or the like, which was See also:drawn or See also:cast to decide by chance, under divine guidance, various matters, such as disputes, divisions of See also:property, selection of See also:officers and frequently as a method of See also:divination in See also:ancient times. From this See also:original sense the meaning develops into that which falls to a See also:person by lot, chance or See also:fate, then to any portion of See also:land, &c., allotted to a person, and hence, quite generally, of a quantity of anything. million times the price. These are said to be much more favour-able terms than were given in See also:Vienna, See also:Frankfort and other leading See also:European cities at the end of the 18th century. The Loterie Royale was ultimately suppressed in 1836. Under the See also:law of the 29th of May 1844 lotteries may be held for the assistance of charity and the See also:fine arts. In 1878 twelve million lottery tickets of one See also:franc each were sold in See also:Paris to pay for prizes to exhibitors in the great See also:Exhibition and expenses of working-men visitors. The first See also:prize was See also:worth 5000; the second, £4000, and the third and See also:fourth £2000 each. The Societe du See also:Credit Foncier, and many of the large towns, are permitted to See also:contract loans, the periodical repayments of which are determined by lot. This practice, which is prohibited in See also:Germany and See also:England, resembles the older See also:system of giving higher and See also:lower rates of See also:interest for See also:money according to lot. Lotteries were suppressed in See also:Belgium.in 183o, See also:Sweden in 1841 and See also:Switzerland in 1865, but they still figure in the state budgets of See also:Austria-See also:Hungary, See also:Prussia and other See also:German States, See also: It was proposed to make weekly collections from subscribers, in fixed amounts, ranging from sixpence to four shillings. The interest on the money deposited would not go to the depositors but would be set aside to See also:form the prizes. Three See also:hundred thousand tickets, divisible into halves, quarters and eighths, according to the sum deposited weekly, would form a See also:series of 12,500 prizes, of a See also:total value of £27,000. At the same See also:time, the subscriber, while having his ordinary lottery chances of these prizes, still has to his credit intact the amount which he has subscribed See also:week by week. In England the earliest lotteries sanctioned by government were for such purposes as the repair of harbours in 1569, and the See also:Virginia See also:Company in 1612. In the lottery of 1569, 40,000 chances were sold at ten shillings each, the prizes being " See also:plate, and certain sorts of merchandises." In 1698 lotteries, with the exception of the Royal See also:Oak lottery for the benefit of the Royal Fishing Company, were prohibited as See also:common nuisances, by which :hildren, servants and other unwary persons had been ruined. Chis See also:prohibition was in the 18th century gradually extended o illegal insurances on marriages and other events, and to a great many See also:games with See also:dice, such as See also:faro, See also:basset, See also:hazard, except See also:backgammon and games played in the royal See also:palace. In spite of these prohibitions, the government from 1709 down to 1824 annually raised considerable sums in lotteries authorized by See also:act of See also:parliament. The prizes were in the form of terminable or perpetual annuities. The £10 tickets were sold at a See also:premium of say 40% to contractors who resold them in See also:retail (sometimes in one-sixteenth parts) by " See also:morocco men," or men with red See also:leather books who travelled through the See also:country. As the drawing ex-tended over See also:forty days, a very pernicious system arose of insuring the fate of tickets during the drawing for a small premium of 4d. or 6d. This was partly cured by the Little Go Act of 1802, directed against the itinerant wheels which plied between the state lotteries, and partly by See also:Perceval's Act in 18o6, which confined the drawing of each lottery to one See also:day. From 1793 to 1824 the government made an See also:average yearly profit of £346,765. See also:Cope, one of the largest contractors, is said to have spent £36,000 in advertisements in a single year. The See also:English lotteries were used to raise loans for See also:general purposes, but latterly they were confined to particular See also:objects, such as the improvement ofLondon, the disposal of a museum, the See also:purchase of a picture See also:gallery, &c. Through the efforts of See also:Lord Lyttleton and others a strong public See also:opinion was formed against them, and in 1826 they were finally prohibited. An energetic proposal to revive the system was made before the select See also:committee on See also:metropolitan improvements in 183o, but it was not listened to. By a unique blunder in legislation, authority was given to hold a lottery under an act of 1831 which provided a scheme for the improvement of the See also:city of See also:Glasgow. These " Glasgow lotteries " were suppressed by an act of 1834. Art Unions were legalized by the Art Unions Act 1846. The last lottery prominently before the public in England was that of Dethier's twelfth-cake lottery, which was suppressed on the 27th of See also:December 186o. As defined at the beginning of this See also:article, the word lottery has a meaning wide enough to include missing-word competitions, distributions by tradesmen of prize coupons, sweepstakes, &c. See See also:Report of See also:Joint Select Committee on Lotteries, esic. (1908). The See also:statute law in See also:Scotland is the same as in England. At common law in Scotland it is probable that all lotteries and See also:raffles, for whatever purpose held, may be indicted as nuisances. The art unions are supposed to be protected by a See also:special statute. See also:United States.—The See also:American See also:Congress of 1776 instituted a national lottery. Most states at that time legalized lotteries for public objects, and before 1820 the Virginia legislature passed seventy acts authorizing lotteries for various public purposes, such as See also:schools, roads, &c.--about 85% of the subscriptions being returned in prizes. At an See also:early See also:period (1795) the city of See also:Washington was empowered to set up lotteries as a mode of raising money for public purposes; and this authorization from the See also:Maryland legislature was approved by an act of the Federal Congress in 1812. In 1833 they were prohibited in New See also:York and See also:Massachusetts and gradually in the other states, until they survived only in See also:Louisiana. In that state, the Louisiana State Lottery, a company chartered in 1868, had a monopoly for which it paid $40,000 to the state See also:treasury. Its last See also:charter was granted in 1879 for a period of twenty-five years, and a renewal was refused in 189o. In 1890 Congress forbade the use of the mails for promoting any lottery enterprise by a statute so stringent that it was held to make it a penal offence to employ them to further the sale of See also:Austrian government bonds, issued under a scheme for drawing some by lot for See also:payment at a premium (see See also:Horner v. United States, 147 United States Reports, 449). This had the effect of compelling the Louisiana State Lottery to move its quarters to See also:Honduras, in which place it still exists, selling its bonds to a considerable extent in the See also:Southern States. Since lotteries have become illegal there have been a great number of judicial decisions defining a lottery. In general, where skill or See also:judgment is to be exercised there is no lottery, the essential element of which is chance or lot. There are numerous statutes against lotteries, the See also:reason being given that they " tend to promote a gambling spirit," and that it is the See also:duty of the state to " protect the morals and advance the welfare of the See also:people." In New York the Constitution of 1846 forbade lotteries, and by § 324 of the Penal See also:Code a lottery is declared " unlawful and a public See also:nuisance." " Contriving " and advertising lotteries is also penal. The following have been held illegal lotteries: In New York, a See also:concert, the tickets for which entitled the holder to a prize to be drawn by lot; in See also:Indiana, offering a See also:gold See also:watch to the purchaser of goods who guesses the number of beans in a See also:bottle; in See also:Texas, selling " prize candy " boxes; and operating a See also:nickel-in-the-slot See also:machine—so also in Louisiana; in Massachusetts, the " policy " or " envelope game," or a " See also:raffle "; in See also:Kentucky (1905), prize See also:coupon packages, the coupons having to spell a certain word (U.S. v. See also:Jefferson, 134 Fed. R. 299) ; in See also:Kansas (1907) it was held by the Supreme Court that the See also:gift of a See also:hat-See also:pin to each purchaser was not illegal as a " gift enterprise," there being no chance or lot. In See also:Oklahoma (1907) it was held that the making of contracts for the payment of money, the certainty in value of return being dependent on chance, was a lottery (Fidelity Fund Co. v. See also:Vaughan, 90 Pac. See also:Rep. 34). The See also:chief features of a lottery are " procuring through lot or chance, by the investment of a sum of money or something of value, some greater amount of money or thing of greater value. When such are the chief features of any scheme whatever it may be christened, or however it may be guarded or concealed by cunningly devised conditions or screens, it is under the law a lottery " (U.S. v. See also:Wallace, 58, Fed. Rep. 942). In 1894 and 1897 Congress forbade the importation of lottery tickets or advertisements into the United States. In 1899, setting up or promoting lotteries in See also:Alaska was. prohibited by Congress, and in 1900 it forbade any lottery or sale of lottery tickets in See also:Hawaii. In See also:Porto Rico lotteries, raffles and gift-enterprises are forbidden (Penal Code, 1902, § 291). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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