LOTTERIES have been encouraged by some states for the purpose of raising a revenue. The general plan has been for the government to sell a certain number of tickets or chances, and to distribute by lot a part of the money thus collected as prizes among a comparatively small number of the purchaser's. Lotteries are games of chance, the aggregate number of players in which are sure to lose a part of their venture. During the period in which the English state lotteries were carried on by Act of Parliament, it was the plan to distribute in prizes of different magnitudes an amount equal to 101. for each ticket or chance that was issued, and the profit to the state consisted of the sum beyond that rate which contractors were willing to give for the privilege of selling to the public the tickets or shares of tickets, which for that purpose they might divide into halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths of tickets. The price paid by the contractors for this privilege varied with circumstances, but was usually about six or seven pounds per ticket beyond the amount repaid in prizes, while the price charged by the contractors to the public was generally four or five pounds per ticket beyond that paid to the government ; and more than this rate of advance was always required when the tickets were divided into shares, the smaller shares being charged more in propor tion than the 1 irger.
The earliest English lottery of which there is any record was in 1569, when 40,000 chances were sold at ten shillings each : the prizes consisted of articles of plate, and the profit was employed for the repair of certain harbours. In the course of the following century the spirit of gambling appears to have materially increased in this direc tion, for private lotteries were, early in the reign of Queen Anne, suppressed " as public nuisances." In the early period of the history of the National Debt of England, it was usual to pay the prizes in the state lotteries in the form of terminable annuities. In 1694 a loan of a million was raised by the sale of lottery tickets at 101. per ticket, the prizes in which were funded at the rate of 14 per cent. for sixteen years certain. In 1746 a loan of three millions was raised on 4 per cent. annuities, and a lottery of 50,000 tickets at 10/. each ; and in the following year one million was raised by the sale of 1.00,000 tickets, the prizes in which were funded in perpetual annuities at the rate of 4 per cent. per annum. Probably the last occasion on which the taste for gambling was thus encouraged was in 1780, when every subscriber of 1000/. towards a loan of twelve millions at 4 per cent. received a bonus of four lottery tickets, the value of each of which was 10/.
In 1778 an Act was passed obliging every person who kept a lottery office to take out a yearly licence, and to pay 50/. for the same, a measure which reduced the number of lottery-offices from 400 to 51.
By limiting the subdivision of chances to the sixteenth of a ticket as the minimum, it was intended to prevent the labouring population from risking their earnings, but this limitation was extensively and easily evaded by means which aggravated the evil, the keepers of these illegal offices (commonly known as "little goes") and insurance offices requiring extra, profits to cover the chances of detection and punish ment. All the efforts of the police were ineffectual for the suppression
of these alma proceedings. and for many years a growing repugnance was In clacreetuenee manifested in parliament to this method of raining any part of the public revenue. At length, in 1823, the last Act that was mnetleatel by parliament for the sale of lottery tickets contained provisions for putting down all private lotteries, and for rendering illegal the vale. in this kingdom, of all tickets or shares of tickets in soy foreign lottery, which latter provision is, however, to this day, exten sively ended.
The system of state lotteries was very long carried on by the French government, and was the cause of still greater demoralisation than in EngLand. State lotteries have been abolished in France. Lotteries for the purpose of raising money for state purposes are still carries] on in t a Austrian dominions, in several of the smaller German states, and by the government of the Pope. The issuing or dealing in tickets for foreign lotteries in the United Kingdom is punishable as a mis demeanour.
Lotteries have been very common In the United States, and have been sanctioned by the several states, not so much as a means of raising money for state purposes, as with the view of encouraging, as they supposed, many useful objects which could only be effected by raining at ouee a large sum of money, inch as canals, the establishment of schools, and even the publication of a book. The numerous frauds practisedin lottery schemes in the United States have perhaps done more to open the eyes of the people to the mischief resulting from them than any investigation into the true principles of lotteries. A distinguished American Lawyer, who figured in the Now York State Convention nearly fifty years ago, declared that though "he was no friend to lotteries, he could not admit that they were per se criminal or Immoral, when authorised by law. If they were nuisances, It was in the manner in which they were managed. In England, if not In France, there were lotteries annually Instituted by government, and it was considered a fair way to reach the pockets of misers and persons disposed to dissipate their funds. The American Congress of 1776 instituted a national lottery, and 'perhaps no body of men ever surpassed them in intelligence and virtue." These remarks are merely quoted iu order to show what a man of high character in America for integrity stud knowledge thought of lotteries. The opinions which he expressed were at that time shared by a great number, and lotteries are still common in the United States, as the advertisements in their papers show.
The lotteries called Art-Unions are noticed under Anr-Unoxs.