678 LOT' 
depend upon the drawing of the former; and the buying 
and felling of chances and parts of chances of tickets in 
the date-lotteries became a general praftice, till it was 
prohibited by an aft pafl’ed in 1718, by which all the un¬ 
dertakings refembling lotteries, or befng dependent on 
the ftate-lottery, were ftriftly prohibited, under the pe¬ 
nalty of 100I. over and above all penalties enjoined by 
former afts of parliament againft private lotteries. 
During the reign of queen Anne, the lotteries were ge¬ 
nerally for terminable annuities, to which both blanks 
and prizes were entitled at different rates; thus in 1710, 
the lottery confided of 150,000 tickets, valued at 10I. each, 
every ticket being entitled to an annuity for 3? years, the 
blanks at 14s. per annum, and the prizes to greater an¬ 
nuities, from 5I. to 1000I. per annum. This was the firll 
lottery for which the Bank of England received the fub- 
fcriptions for government. In the following year, the 
■whole of the money advanced for the tickets was to be 
repaid, both in blanks and prizes, in 32 years, with in- 
tereft at 6 per cent, and an additional fnm of nearly half 
a million to be divided, in order to form prizes, which 
additional capital was to be paid with the like intereft 
within the fame period as the original fum. In this man¬ 
ner they were Condufted for feveral years ; and a very con- 
fiderable premium was given for the money advanced, in 
addition to a high rate of intereft. 
According to the lottery-plans which prevailed from 
fir Robert Walpole’s adminiftration to that of the duke of 
Grafton, the tickets were iflued at iol. each ; and occa- 
fionally the fubfcription was open to the public at large. 
The higheft prize was generally io,oool. and the low’eft 
zol. There were from four to fix blanks to a prize, and 
the blanks entitled the bearers to 5I. or 61 . ftock in the 
three or four per cent, bank-annuities, the value of the 
blanks and prizes being generally funded. The lottery- 
office keepers divided the tickets into (hares and chances, 
the former entitling the holders to the proportion they had 
purchafed of blanks and prizes, the chances to prizes 
only ; that is, they had no return if the ticket was drawn 
a blank. The tickets, according to the advantage or dif- 
advantage of the fcheme, in refpeft of the number of 
blanks to a prize, and the number of high prizes, gene¬ 
rally fold at from ill. to 12I. before the drawing. When 
the tickets fold for nl. and the blanks were entitled to 
61. in the three per cents, as the blank might be fold for 
5I. 8s. ready money when the three per cents, were at 90, 
the adventurer only gambled at a ri(k of 5I. 12s. and at 
the higheft calculation, when tickets were worth 13I. he 
never Itaked more than 7I. 12s. for a ticket before the 
drawing. 
In 1759, the fcheme of the lottery included two prizes 
of 20,oool. each, which had not been the cafe in any pre¬ 
ceding lottery fince the time of queen Anne. The fcheme 
for the year 1767, contained one prize of 2o,oool. and 
this was many years after the ufual amount of the higheft 
prize. About this time a material alteration was made 
m the plan of the lotteries ; the allowance to blanks was 
difeontinued, the whole fum being divided into prizes, 
the number of which was of courfe conftderably increafed, 
particularly as the proportion of fmall prizes was much 
greater than it has fince been, and in feveral of the fol¬ 
lowing years was lefs than two blanks to a prize. All 
the lotteries during the time lord North was chancellor of 
the exchequer were formed on this principle, with fome 
variation in the fchemes, which favoured the holders of 
tickets and the lottery-office keepers, and greatly in- 
creafed the fpirit of gaming, fuch as paying the prizes in 
sr.oney inftead of ftock, and making the firlt-drawn ticket 
for leveral fucceffive days a prize of ioool. or more, which 
enhanced the price of the tickets, and encouraged per- 
fons who had blanks drawn to buy again. Some judi¬ 
cious regulations were, however, adopted for the fecurity 
of perfons purchafmg (hares of tickets, by limiting the 
(hares into which tickets may be divided to halves, quar¬ 
ters, eighths, and fixteenths; and obliging all lottery- 
r E R Y. 
office keepers to depofit the tickets they divided into 
(hares in the bank, and to have the faid (hares examined 
and damped. The prafticeof infuring tickets and (hares 
was likewife reftrained, by enafting, that “ no perfon (hall 
fell the chance or chances of any ticket or any (hare for 
any time lefs than the whole time of drawing from the 
day of (ale; nor lhall receive any fum of money what- 
foever in confideration for the repayment of any fum, in 
cafe any ticket (hall prove fortunate, or in any cafe of any 
chance or event relating to the drawing, either as to time 
or its being fortunate, nor (hall publi(h propofals for the 
fame, under the penalty of 500I. one-half to be paid to 
the perfon fuing for the fame, and the other moiety to his 
majefty.” 
An aft pafled in 1773, for regulating the conduft of the 
lottery, reftrains any perfon from keeping an office for the 
fale of tickets, (hares, or chances, or for buying, felling, 
infuring, or regiftering, without a licenfe; for which li- 
cenfe each office-keeper muft pay 50I. if it be in or within 
twenty miles of London, Edinburgh, or Dublin, and iol. 
for every licenfe for every other office, to continue in 
force for one year; and the produce to be applied towards 
defraying the expenfes of the lottery. And no perfon is 
allowed to fell any (hare or chance lefs than a (ixteenth, 
on the penalty of 50I. All tickets divided into (hares or 
chances are to be depofited in an office, to be eftabliftied 
in London by the commiffioners of the treafury, who are 
to appoint a perfon to conduft the bufinefs thereof; and 
all (hares are to be (lamped by the faid officer, who is to 
give a receipt for every ticket depofited with him. The 
numbers of all tickets fo depofited are to be entered in 2 
book, with the names of the owners, and the number of 
(hares into which they are divided 5 and two-pence for 
each (hare is to be paid to the officer on depofiting fuch 
tickets, who is therewith to pay all expenfes incident to 
the office. All tickets depofited in the office are to remain 
there three days after the drawing. And any perfon keep¬ 
ing an office, or felling (hares, »r who (hall publiffi any 
fcheme for receiving moneys in confideration of any in¬ 
tereft to be granted in any ticket in the faid lottery, &c. 
without being in pofleffion of fuch ticket, (hall forfeit 500I. 
and fuffer three months imprifonment. And no bufinefs 
is to be tranfafted at any of the offices after eight in the 
evening, except on the evening of the Saturday preceding 
the drawing. No perfon is to keep any office for the fale 
of tickets, &c. in Oxford or Cambridge, on penalty of 20I. 
Before this regulating ftatute took place, there were up¬ 
wards of 400 lottery-offices in and about London only ; 
but the whole number afterwards, for all England, as ap¬ 
peared by the lift publi(hed by authority, amounted to no 
more than 51. They are, however, at this time much 
more numerous ; but the lift is not now made public. 
By 42 Geo. III. c. 119, all games or lotteries called little- 
goes are declared public nuifances ; and all perfons keeping 
an office or place for any game or lottery not authorized 
by law, (hall forfeit 500I. and be deemed rogues and va¬ 
gabonds. The proprietor of a whole ticket may never- 
thelefs infure it for its value only, with any licenfed office, 
for the whole time of drawing, from the time of infurance, 
under a bona-fide agreement, without a ftamp. The la(t 
ftate-lottery aft enafting various new regulations was 
49 Geo. III. c. 94. 
During Mr. Pitt’s adminiftration, the lotteries were con- 
trafted for entirely diftinft from the loans of the refpec- 
tive years ; and, as it became necefiary to endeavour to 
augment every fource of the revenue as much as poffible,, 
various alterations were made in the lottery-fchemes, 
chiefly with a view of railing the price of tickets, and of 
keeping up the price during the time of drawing. The 
number and amount of the higheft prizes were increaled, 
fome fchemes containing four prizes of 20,0001. each, 
others of two 30,000k prizes; while, for the purpofe of 
difpofing of a greater number of tickets in the courfe of 
the year, the lottery was divided into two or three fmaller 
ones, drawn at different times; the amount of the prin¬ 
cipal 
