LOTTERY SCHEMES. 22$ 



tinental lotteries. It is scarcely worth while to win 15 

 times a small stake, and few care to risk a large stake 

 in this or any other venture. The public are always 

 wanting to win thousands of pounds by risking only a 

 few shillings. The Continental system allows them 

 fffe indulgence in this taste. Instead of selecting a 

 single number, the speculator can take two, three, or 

 four numbers either in any order or in some selected 

 order. In the French lotteries he was even allowed to 

 take five numbers in a selected order ; so that to win 

 it was necessary that the five numbers drawn should be 

 not only the five he had selected, but should come out 

 in the precise order he had selected. In this case there 

 was only one favourable drawing for the speculator out 

 of 5,273,912,160,000 possible drawings ; so that theo- 

 retically, if he had ventured a halfpenny and chanced 

 to win, he should have received rather more than 

 10)000,000^. (the exact sum should be 10,987,31 7Z.). 

 I have not heard whether any ventures of this 

 tremendously speculative character were ever made ; 

 certainly none ever resulted fortunately for the specu- 

 lator. But in any case the lottery-keeper would not 

 have had to pay more than 5,000 million times the 

 sum risked, for all he allowed (or rather promised) any 

 one who might win on this venture was 10 million 

 times his stake, or less than one 500th of what he was 

 entitled to. Any sums ventured on this risk (called 

 the quine determine) might be regarded as a present 

 to the lottery-keeper ; though it may be worth remark- 

 ing that if a sufficient number ventured their money 



