LOTTERY SCHEMES. 231 



respectively ; whence it will be judged how enormously 

 the gambling public allowed themselves to be defrauded 

 in return for the privilege of being allowed to risk their 

 money on these more speculative ventures. The more 

 speculative the venture, the greater was the deduction 

 iria'de from the just value of the prize. In the case of 

 the simple drawing only 3s. 4cZ. per ll. was deducted; 

 for determinate drawing, 4s. 5^d. per II. ; for simple 

 ambe (two numbers), 6s. 6d. ; for determinate ambe, 

 7s. 3cZ. ; for simple terne, 10s. 7^d. ; and so on, until 

 for simple quine so much was deducted that the 

 speculator received only 6cL per 1.1. in the earlier 

 Geneva lotteries, and about Wd. in the French lotteries. 

 Simple quine was not allowed in later lotteries on the 

 Geneva system. The fact that the more speculative 

 ventures were often successful proves to all who under- 

 stand the laws of probability that immense sums must, 

 on the whole, have been lost by gamblers who made 

 such ventures. Those who brought themselves to 

 think that in ca c es of great emergency as the failure 

 of the City of Glasgow and the West of England banks 

 it might be justifiable to take advantage of the 

 gambling propensities of mankind would have done 

 well to consider the evidence afforded by the success 

 of the Continental system. They would probably have 

 achieved their object more readily by adopting one of 

 those systems ; and they would, in appearance at least, 

 have been freed from the imputation of winning money 

 on a certainty, which even among gamblers is not con- 

 sidered to be strictly correct. 



The Times. 



