LOTTERY'. 



545 



5620; and, because the name Gentile, by chance, had 

 never been drawn, the popular belief prevailed, that 

 the devil had carried him oft', together with his name, 

 to punish him for this unlucky invention. Numbers 

 were afterwards substituted instead of the names of 

 eligible noblemen, and hence the lotto assumed its 

 present form. The numbers from one to ninety are 

 used; from these, on the day of drawing, five numbers 

 are always drawn. Out of the ninety numbers, each 

 adventurer chooses for himself such and as many 

 numbers as he likes, and specifies with what sum 

 and upon what kind of chance he will back each 

 selected number; whereupon he receives a printed 

 ticket. In this lottery, there are four kinds of 

 chances: 1. An estrado, so called, which requires 

 only one number among the five that are drawn, and 

 in which the successful adventurers receive fourteen 

 times the stake. By this the lotto gains sixteen per 

 cent., because there are seventeen blanks to one 

 prize. 2. The wager, in which a man lays a wager, 

 as it were, with the lotto, that one of the selected 

 numbers will have the first, second, third, fourth or 

 fifth place in the order of drawing. Should this event 

 happen in the drawing, the bettor obtains sixty-seven 

 times the sum deposited. By this the lotto gains 

 about twenty-five per cent. 3. The third is an ambo, 

 in which, of the numbers drawn, there are two which 

 the adventurer has pitched upon. He receives from 

 the lotto 240 times the stake. In this case, the lotto 

 gains thirty-seven per cent., there being 399 blanks 

 to one prize. 4. The last is a terno, by which the 

 lotto gains fifty-four per cent., there being 11,347 

 blanks to one prize. It requires the adventurer to 

 pitch upon three of the five numbers drawn, in which 

 case he wins 4800 times the amount of the stake. 

 The quaternes and yuinternes are a later invention, 

 and seldom applied to practice, because the lotto 

 thereby gains eighty-eight per cent, and more. 



The lotto was every where patronized by the mul- 

 titude, with an interest increasing almost to madness. 

 Wise governments soon saw into the destructive ten- 

 dency of the lotto, and put an end to it, or prohibited 

 adventuring in it under a severe penalty. Though 

 the profit of the lotto banks was evident, yet fortune, 

 by means of (ernes and quinternes, brought many of 

 them to ruin, or, at least, to its very verge, and 

 hence, if numbers were backed too frequently, the 

 conductors took the precaution to secure themselves, 

 by declaring before the drawing, that such numbers 

 were full, and they could receive no further stake 

 upon them. Frauds, also, were practised, by means 

 of .violent riding and carrier-pigeons, on those lottos, 

 the under offices of which, being placed at a distance, 

 were accustomed to sell tickets, after the drawing- in 

 the principal offices had commenced. 



II. The proper lottery, called also class lottery, 

 when divided into classes. Its origin is more ancient 

 than that of the lotto. It has been referred to the 

 Roman Congiaria. It is more probable that it origi- 

 nated from the transfer of merchandise by lot, of 

 which method the Italian merchants made use even 

 in the midille ages, and of which we also find traces 

 in Germany ; for as early as 1521, the council at 

 Osnaburg is said to have established lotteries for 

 merchandise. So also in France, under Francis I., 

 similar lotteries for merchandise were permitted to 

 the merchants, under the inspection of government, 

 in consideration of certain duties. A money lottery 

 was established at Florence, in 1530. In 1571, there 

 appears to have been a public officer in Venice for 

 the inspection of the lottery. From Italy, lotteries 

 passed into France, under the name of blanque (from 

 the Italian bianca, because most of the tickets were 

 blanks, mere white paper, carta bianca). In 1582 

 tuid 1588, Louis de Gonzagn established such a 



Uanque in Paris, for providing poor girls of his estates 

 with dowries ; and, in 1656, Lawrence Tonti (from 

 whom the Tontines derive their name) sought to 

 establish a large Uanque royale, which was first 

 accomplished in 1660. Since this time there have 

 been in France only lotteries royales, the income of 

 which is commonly applied to public buildings. This 

 iniquitous traffic has been revived of late, in France, 

 on a much larger and more destructive scale than it 

 has attained in any other country. In 1810 and we 

 have no reason to believe any decrease has since taken 

 place lotteries were drawn twice a week at Paris, 

 and so often at Bourdeaux, Brussels, Lyons and Stras- 

 burg, as to afford one every other day. 12,000,000 

 francs were yearly produced to government by this 

 public gambling ; and it has been estimated, that at 

 Paris, the result has been more than 100 suicides 

 annually. In England, the first lottery occurs in 

 1567 1568, a printed plan of which, as distributed, 

 belongs to the antiquarian society in London. In 

 1612, a lottery was granted in behalf of the Virginia 

 company, and, in 1680, one also in behalf of the 

 undertaker of an aqueduct to furnish London with 

 water. In 1709, the rage for private, and, in many 

 instances, most fraudulent lotteries, was at its height 

 in England, and shop-keepers, of all descriptions, 

 disposed of their goods in this way, the price of 

 tickets being as low as half-a-crown, a shilling, or 

 even sixpence. Towards the close of the year, an 

 existing act of parliament was put in force for their 

 suppression, and another to the same purpose was 

 passed in the tenth o ? queen Anne. The first parlia- 

 mentary lottery was instituted in 1709, and, from that 

 time till 1824, no session passed without a lottery 

 bill. In October, 1826, the last British lottery was 

 drawn. They are now abolished in Britain. As 

 early as 1549, a lottery was drawn in Amsterdam, to 

 procure money for the erection of the tower of a 

 church, and, in 1595, one at Delft. In 1653, one was 

 established at Hamburg, according to the Dutch 

 method, and, in 1699, the first class lottery, at Nu- 

 remberg, and, in 1740, the first one was drawn in 

 Berlin. Most of the late German lotteries are drawn 

 in classes, in order to facilitate the sale of tickets. 

 The great lottery of Hamburg goes upon the plan of 

 one drawing. Latterly, lotteries for merchandise of 

 all kinds, under the inspection of government, have 

 been frequent in Germany. The managers of the 

 principal lotteries sell only whole tickets. Brokers, 

 however, divide them into halves, quarters, eighths, 

 and even sixteenths, in order to facilitate their sale. 

 In some places, they even let out tickets and parts of 

 tickets, upon a particular number of drawings ; in 

 which case they are not obliged to pay the prize 

 which may fall to the ticket, unless it be drawn 

 within the stipulated number of drawings. If the 

 principal prizes remain for a long time in the lottery, 

 so that the probability of being able to obtain them 

 increases at each successive drawing, then a great 

 profit is made in buying and selling tickets, and there 

 are cases in which, in the last drawings, ten, and even 

 twenty times the original price of the ticket has been 

 demanded. Very lately, in the Austrian monarchy, 

 in the kingdom of Bavaria, and in the duchy of 

 Mecklenburg, estate lotteries have been got up, and 

 manufactories, the estates of noblemen, and even 

 whole lordships, have been disposed of by lottery, 

 under public sanction, and, ordinarily, under the 

 security of important mercantile houses, which under- 

 took the disposal of the property, in order to settle 

 the debts of the owners. A money lottery lias ordi- 

 narily been combined with them. 



Latterly, lotteries have been combined with state 

 loans. When the credit of the state is low, or when 

 the rate of interest is high, efforts have been made to 

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