109110196197198199910111213141 6 701 6 711 7 721 7 731 8 741 8 752 7 712 7 722 8 732 8 742 9 752 9 763 8 723 8 733 9 743 9 753 10 763 10 774 9 734 9 744 10 754 10 764 11 774 11 785 10 745 10 755 11 765 11 775 12 785 12 7411 32 7511 33 766 12 776 12 786 13 736 13 7212 33 7612 34 7713 33 7813 52 727 14 727 14 7313 34 7713 35 7814 34 5314 51 7115 45 7015 46 7114 35 7814 36 7015 35 5415 50 7016 46 7116 47 7015 36 6915 37 6916 36 5516 49 6917 47 6917 48 6916 37 6816 38 6817 37 5617 48 6818 48 6818 49 6817 38 6717 39 6718 38 5718 47 6719 49 6719 50 6718 39 6618 40 6619 39 5819 46 6620 50 6620 51 6619 40 6519 41 6520 40 5920 45 6521 51 6521 52 6520 41 6420 42 6421 41 6021 44 6422 52 6422 45 6421 42 6221 43 6322 42 6122 43 6123 44 6323 44 6122 43 6322 44 6223 43 6223 42 6224 43 6224 43 6023 44 6023 45 6124 44 6324 41 6325 42 6125 42 6324 45 6124 46 6025 45 6425 40 6026 41 6026 41 6225 46 5925 47 5926 46 6526 39 5927 40 5927 40 5826 47 5826 48 5827 47 6627 38 5828 39 5828 39 5927 48 5727 49 5628 48 6728 37 5729 38 5729 38 5628 49 5628 50 5729 49 6829 36 5630 37 5630 37 5729 50 5529 51 5530 50 6930 35 5531 36 5531 36 5430 51 5430 52 5431 51 7031 34 5432 35 5332 35 5531 52 5331 32 5332 52 7132 33 5333 34 5433 34 53
In the following combinations there are but 1560, where there might be 76076; and if this latter number were printed and sold, some one must hold the threefirst drawn numbers, every ticket-holder having one chance out of 76076 of drawing the capital prize. But, in this combination, if a man were to purchase the whole of the tickets, being 1560, there would still be 49 chances against his holding the three first numbers, to one for it. As there are no two tickets holding the same three numbers, of course but one can hold the three first, which is the prize.
200206201202203204150012341 9 761 9 771 10 771 10 781 11 212 10 772 10 782 11 782 11 772 12 223 11 783 11 763 12 533 12 763 13 234 12 754 12 744 13 544 13 754 14 245 13 745 13 755 14 555 14 745 15 256 14 73Here ends Fifteen Packages of Half Tickets. The following Packages are Quarters.6 14 726 15 566 15 726 16 267 15 727 15 737 16 577 16 717 17 278 16 718 16 708 17 588 17 708 18 2817 52 7017 51 719 18 599 18 699 19 2918 51 6918 50 6919 52 6019 36 6810 20 3019 50 6819 49 6820 40 7220 37 6731 41 5120 49 6720 48 6721 50 6221 38 6632 42 5221 48 6621 47 6622 49 6322 39 6533 43 5322 47 6522 46 6523 48 6423 40 6434 44 5423 46 6423 45 6424 47 6524 41 6235 45 5524 45 6324 44 6125 46 6625 45 6336 46 5625 44 6225 43 6226 45 6726 43 6037 47 5726 43 6126 42 6327 44 6827 44 6138 48 5827 42 6027 41 6028 43 6928 42 5939 49 5928 41 5928 40 5929 42 7029 46 5840 50 6029 40 5829 39 5830 41 7130 47 5761 67 7330 39 5730 38 5731 51 6131 48 5662 68 7431 38 5631 37 5632 39 7332 49 5563 69 7532 37 5532 36 5533 38 7433 50 5464 70 7633 36 5433 35 5334 37 7534 51 5365 71 7734 35 5334 52 5435 36 7635 52 7366 72 78
By a little investigation, any one may discover that his chance for drawing a prize, even of a trifling amount, is extremely small. By the following method any one may ascertain the number of combinations which any given number will produce, as in the present case, 78 × 77 × 76 = 456456 ÷ 6 = 76076, the number of combinations of three numbers each; the 78 multiplied by 77, and the product by 76, and that product divided by 6gives the number of combinations of three numbers each, which the numbers from 1 to 78 will produce, no two combinations containing the same three numbers.
20520620720820921056789101 12 231 13 251 14 271 15 291 16 311 17 332 13 242 14 262 15 282 16 392 17 322 18 343 14 253 15 273 16 293 17 313 18 333 19 354 15 264 16 284 17 304 18 324 19 344 20 365 16 275 17 295 18 315 19 335 20 355 21 376 17 286 18 306 19 326 20 346 21 366 22 387 18 297 19 317 20 347 21 357 22 377 23 398 19 308 20 328 21 338 22 368 23 388 24 409 20 319 21 339 22 359 23 379 24 399 25 4110 21 3210 22 3410 23 3610 24 3810 25 4010 26 4211 22 3311 23 3511 24 3711 25 3911 26 4111 27 4334 45 5612 24 3612 25 3812 26 4012 27 4212 28 4435 46 5737 49 6113 26 3913 27 4113 28 4313 29 4536 47 5838 50 6240 53 6614 28 4214 29 4414 30 4637 48 5939 51 6341 54 6743 55 6715 30 4515 31 4738 49 6040 52 6442 55 6844 56 6846 57 6816 32 4839 50 6141 53 6543 56 6945 57 6947 58 6949 59 6940 51 6242 54 6644 57 7046 58 7048 59 7050 60 7041 52 6343 55 6745 58 7147 59 7149 60 7151 61 7142 53 6444 56 6846 59 7248 60 7250 61 7252 62 7243 54 6544 55 6645 47 7349 61 7351 62 7353 63 7344 55 6646 58 7048 61 7450 62 7452 63 7454 64 7467 71 7647 59 7249 62 7551 63 7553 64 7555 65 7568 72 7548 60 7150 63 7652 64 7654 65 7656 66 7669 73 7873 75 7751 64 7753 65 7755 66 7757 67 7770 74 7774 76 7852 65 7854 66 7866 67 7858 68 78
2962972982993003011112131415221 18 351 19 371 20 391 21 411 22 431 23 452 19 362 20 382 21 402 22 422 23 442 24 463 20 373 21 393 22 413 23 433 24 453 25 474 21 384 22 404 23 424 24 444 25 464 26 485 22 395 23 415 24 435 25 455 26 475 27 496 23 406 24 426 25 446 26 466 27 486 28 507 24 417 25 437 26 457 27 477 28 497 29 518 25 428 26 448 27 468 28 488 29 508 30 529 26 439 27 459 28 479 29 499 30 519 31 5310 27 4410 28 4610 29 4810 30 5010 31 5210 32 5411 28 4511 29 4711 30 4911 31 5111 32 5311 33 5512 29 4612 30 4812 31 5012 32 5212 33 5412 34 5613 30 4713 31 4913 32 5113 33 5313 34 5513 35 5714 31 4814 32 5014 33 5214 34 5414 35 5614 36 5815 32 4915 33 5115 34 5315 35 5515 36 5715 37 5916 33 5016 34 5216 35 5416 36 5616 37 5816 38 6017 34 5117 35 5317 36 5517 37 5717 38 5917 39 6152 61 7018 36 5418 37 5618 38 5818 39 6018 40 6253 62 7155 63 7119 38 5719 39 5919 40 6119 41 6354 63 7256 64 7258 65 7220 40 6020 41 6220 42 6455 64 7357 65 7359 66 7361 67 7421 42 6321 43 6656 65 7458 66 7460 67 7462 68 7364 69 7422 44 6557 66 7559 67 7561 68 7563 69 7665 70 7567 71 7558 67 7660 68 7662 69 7664 70 7566 71 7668 72 7659 68 7761 69 7763 70 7765 71 7867 72 7769 73 7760 69 7862 70 7864 71 7866 72 7768 73 7870 74 78
Lottery-dealers are aware of the great odds against the buyers, and are very cautious in keeping all the secrets of a fraud to themselves, by which they are robbing the public continually. But it shall not be the fault of the writer of these pages if their swindling machinations arelonger concealed from the community. Thousands upon thousands of dollars are expended annually in lottery tickets in this country; and how very seldom is it that you hear of a capital prize having been drawn! If there should chance to be a prize of any magnitude awarded to a ticket-holder, it is trumpeted from one end of the Union to the other, by those most interested in lottery speculations, stimulating others to try their luck, and by thatmeans making their very losses minister to their gain; for, in all likelihood, months and years may elapse before another large prize will be drawn from the same lottery.
3023033043053063071718192021221 24 471 25 491 26 511 12 241 13 271 14 392 25 482 26 502 27 522 13 252 14 282 15 383 26 493 27 513 28 533 14 263 15 293 16 374 27 504 28 524 29 544 15 274 16 304 17 365 28 515 29 535 30 555 16 285 17 315 18 356 29 526 30 546 31 566 17 296 18 326 19 347 30 537 31 557 32 577 18 307 19 337 20 338 31 548 32 568 33 588 19 318 20 348 21 329 32 559 33 579 34 599 20 329 21 359 22 3110 33 5610 34 5810 35 6010 21 3310 22 3610 23 3011 34 5711 35 5911 36 6111 22 3411 23 2611 24 2912 35 5812 36 6012 37 6223 49 6612 24 2512 25 2813 36 5913 37 6113 38 6335 50 6537 51 6513 26 2714 37 6014 38 6214 39 6436 51 6438 52 6640 53 7815 38 6115 39 6315 40 6637 52 6739 53 6741 54 7716 39 6216 40 6416 41 6538 53 6940 54 6842 55 7617 40 6317 41 6517 42 6739 54 6841 55 6943 56 7518 41 6418 42 6618 43 6840 55 7042 56 7044 57 7419 42 6519 43 6719 44 6941 56 7143 57 7145 58 7320 43 6620 44 6820 45 7142 57 7244 58 7246 59 7121 44 6721 45 6921 46 7043 58 7345 59 7347 60 7222 45 6822 46 7022 47 7244 59 7446 60 7448 61 7023 46 6923 47 7123 48 7345 60 7547 61 7549 62 6970 73 7624 48 7224 49 7446 61 7648 62 7650 63 6871 74 7773 76 7725 50 7547 62 7749 63 7751 64 6772 75 7874 75 7876 77 7848 63 7850 64 7852 65 66
It will be seen by the lottery combinations we present, how infinitely disproportionate are the chances in this species of gambling—how vastly the odds bear against the purchaser of tickets, and what mischievous results must of necessity spring from a vile system of frauds,perpetrated, as it is, by the sanction of law, and the tolerance of custom.
3083093103963973982324252627281 18 531 19 531 20 531 21 531 22 451 23 462 19 542 20 542 21 542 22 542 23 432 24 453 20 553 21 553 22 553 23 553 24 443 25 554 21 564 22 564 23 564 24 564 25 564 26 565 22 575 23 575 24 575 25 575 26 575 27 576 23 586 24 586 25 586 26 586 27 586 28 587 24 597 25 597 26 597 27 597 28 597 29 598 25 608 26 608 27 608 28 608 29 608 30 789 26 619 27 619 28 619 29 619 30 619 31 7710 27 6210 28 6210 29 6210 30 6210 31 6210 32 7611 28 6311 29 6311 30 6311 31 6311 32 6311 33 7512 29 6412 30 6412 31 6412 32 6412 33 6412 34 7413 30 6513 31 6513 32 6513 33 6513 34 6513 35 7314 31 6614 32 6614 33 6614 34 6614 35 6614 36 7215 32 6715 33 6715 34 6715 35 6715 36 6715 37 7116 33 6816 34 6816 35 6816 36 6816 38 7116 38 7017 34 6917 35 6917 36 6917 37 6917 37 7017 39 6935 44 7018 36 7018 37 7018 38 7018 39 6918 40 6836 45 7137 45 7119 38 7119 39 7119 40 6819 41 6737 46 7238 46 7239 46 7220 40 7220 41 7220 42 6638 47 7339 47 7340 47 7341 47 7321 42 7321 43 6539 48 7440 48 7441 48 7442 48 7446 51 7422 44 6440 49 7541 49 7542 49 7543 49 7547 52 7547 51 6341 50 7642 50 7643 50 7644 50 7648 53 7648 52 6242 51 7743 51 7744 51 7745 51 7749 54 7749 53 6143 52 7844 52 7845 52 7846 52 7850 55 7850 54 60
All the combinations used in this lottery have been given, as also the number that might be made; and, of course, the less the dealer in lotteries makes, the greater the chance in his favor, and the less in favor of the buyer. The figures heading the classes of combinations, on each page, are class-numbers, and those below the first figures,and immediately above the columns, are placed there to indicate the number of packages.
39940029301 24 531 25 532 25 542 26 543 26 553 27 554 27 564 28 565 28 575 29 576 29 586 30 587 30 597 31 598 31 608 32 609 32 619 33 6110 33 6210 34 6211 34 6311 35 6312 35 6412 36 6413 36 6513 37 6514 37 6614 38 6615 38 6715 39 6716 39 6816 40 6817 40 6917 41 6918 41 7018 42 7019 42 7119 43 7120 43 7220 44 7221 44 7321 45 7322 45 7422 46 7423 46 7523 47 7547 50 7624 48 7648 51 7749 51 7749 52 7850 52 78
Here ends the Thirty Packages of Quarters.
MARKED CARDS. See Green on Gambling.MARKED CARDS. See Green on Gambling.
The above are specimens of patterns of playing cards, that the reader may rely upon the gambler's knowing by their back as well as the generality of amusement players know by their face. The same may be said of all the patterns spoken of and presented to the view of the reader on another page of this work.
Literature Lottery TicketThis Ticket will entitle the holder to one QUARTER of such Prize as may be drawn to its Numbers, if demanded within twelve months after the Drawing. Subject to a deduction of Fifteen per cent: Payable forty days after the Drawing.For A. BASSFORD & CO., Managers.Covington, 1841. QUARTER.
[This plate represents a lottery ticket with the numbers placed upon it. The numbers seen upon its face are of the same order as those found upon every ticket when sold, and are used to designate one ticket from another, and by comparing them with the numbers at the head of any of those packages of combinations, on another page, you will see the manner in which they are arranged, and the great advantage in favor of the managers.]
We are indebted for the following exposition to our moral friend, Capt. John Maginn, of New York city.
"Although they may produce, by the various deceptive allurements which they hold forth, a temporary influx into the treasury of the state, yet the prostration of industry, the formation of idle habits, intemperance and various other vices, have invariably been the consequences wherever they have been introduced. No farther evidence of this position is requisite than the fact that in England, where many of the common necessaries of life are heavily taxed, it has been satisfactorily ascertained from observation, that for several days preceding the drawing of a lottery, the consumption of such articles was very materially diminished. It is moreover equally true, that a very small proportion of the tax actually paid, through the purchase of lottery tickets, is available to the state: by far the greater part being absorbed in the expenses, profits, &c., of managers and venders."
As the system of insuring numbers is at present practised to a fearful extent in this city, and as its votaries are mostly the ignorant and unthinking portion of the community, we proceed to give a plain matter-of-fact investigation of the chances.
There being on the day of drawing a certain number of tickets in the wheel, out of which a particular number of them are to be drawn, it follows that there are so many chances to one against a given number being drawn as the number which are to be drawn are contained in the entire number of tickets in the wheel. To illustrate this practically, suppose you would insure the payment of $100 upon the event of a certain number being drawn from the lottery wheel to-day; suppose it is a 78 number lottery, and that 12 ballots are to be drawn; the chance then is evidently 78/12, or 6.5 to 1 that you lose: accordingly, in order to make the chances equal, you must pay 100/6.5, or $15.38, for insurance: if therefore the insurer should ask $32, there would be about $16 fraud: in other words, you would have to contend against about 100 per cent. The only inducement for the insurer to pursue this vile practice, in defiance of constitutions and laws, is a liberal per centage. This varies from 30 to 70, and even 125 per cent. Under circumstances like these, when the chances of gain are obviously so remote, it would seem incredible that any one endowed with even ordinary sagacity could be so deluded—so desperate—as to adventure; though, sad to relate, hundreds and hundreds in this city daily spend their little all in effecting insurance on numbers, and that, too, at the sacrifice of the common necessaries of life.
Another system of insurance, which we will proceed to analyze, is effected by what is termed a station number. The adventurer selects a number, and declares that it will come out the first or second drawn, or insome other place, for which he pays six cents, and if the number is drawn in the order indicated, he is to receive $2.50. To illustrate this, suppose you select a certain number, which you declare will be the third drawn; suppose also that it is a 78 number lottery, and that there are 12 drawn ballots. In this case there are evidently 78/12 = 6.5 chances to 1 against the selected number being drawn. It is also plain that should it be a drawn number, there are 12 chances to 1 against it being drawn in any particular order; wherefore it follows, that there are 6.5x12 = 78 chances to 1 against the selected number being the third or any other particular drawn number. Accordingly, to equalize the chances, in case of winning you should receive 78x6 = $4.68; hence, under these circumstances the insurer gains $2.18, which is nearly 100 per cent. Again, suppose it is a 98 number lottery, and that you pay 25 cents: here we have 98x25 = $24.50, the sum you ought to receive in case of winning, instead of which you only receive 25/6x2.5 = $10.626; hence the insurer gains $13.975, or more than 125 per cent.
We give below a very able memorial, from the pen of Prof.Goddard, of Brown University, to the Legislature of Rhode Island.
The undersigned, citizens of Rhode Island, have long regarded the lottery system with unqualified reprobation. They believe it to be a multiform social evil, which isobnoxious to the severest reprehension of the moralist, and which it is the duty of the legislator, in all cases, to visit with the most effective prohibitory sanctions. Entertaining these convictions, the undersigned memorialists cannot withhold them from the Hon. General Assembly of Rhode Island. They invoke the General Assembly to exercise their constitutional powers, promptly and decisively, for the correction of a long-continued, and wide-spread, and pestilent social evil. They ask them, most respectfully and earnestly, to withdraw, as soon as may be, all legislative sanction of the lottery system, and to save Rhode Island from the enduring reproach of being among the last States to abandon that system. The memorialists beg leave to disclaim, in this matter, all personal or political considerations. They are seeking neither to help nor to hurt any political party. They contemplate no aggression upon the rights or the character of individuals. They are engaged in no impracticable scheme of moral reform. They have no fondness for popular agitation. They are what they profess to be, citizens of Rhode Island, and it is only in the quality of citizens of Rhode Island, that they now ask the General Assembly to resort to the most operative penal enactments, for the entire suppression of a system which exists, and which can exist only to disgrace the character of the State, and to injure both the morals and the interests of the people. The memorialists are persuaded that a commanding majority of the citizens of every political party entertain sentiments of decided hostility to all lotteries. In praying, therefore, for legislative interposition, they feel thatthey are not in advance of public opinion, that they are not urging the General Assembly to anticipate public opinion, but only to imbody it; to accelerate its salutary impulses, and to augment its healthful vigour. The constitutional power of the legislature to interfere in the premises being undisputed, the memorialists beg leave to submit, for consideration, a few only of the many reasons which have forced upon their minds the conclusion—that Rhode Island should lose no time and spare no effort in extirpating the lottery system:—a system which has already worked extensive evil within her borders; which is repugnant to a cultivated moral sense; and which has been branded, both as illegal and immoral, by some of the most enlightened governments upon earth. In this connection, it should be stated, that England, and, it is believed, France likewise, have abandoned the lottery system. Some of the most populous and influential States in this Confederacy have abandoned it. Massachusetts has abandoned it; Pennsylvania has abandoned it; New York has abandoned it. Nay more, so hostile were the people of the latter State to the lottery system, that in revising its Constitution a few years since, they adopted a provision which prohibits the Legislature from ever making a lottery grant. These examples are adduced to show the progress of an enlightened public sentiment upon this subject, and to exhibit the grateful spectacle of governments, differently constituted, exercising their powers for the best interests of the people. The evils which the lottery system creates, and the evils which it exasperates, are so various and complicated, that theundersigned memorialists cannot attempt an enumeration. They are so revolting as to furnish no motive for rhetorical exaggeration. A few only of these evils the undersigned memorialists will now proceed to mention.
1. Lotteries are liable to many of the strongest objections which can be alleged against gambling. They have thus far escaped, it is true, the infamy of gambling, but they can plead no exemption from its malignant consequences. Like gamblers, they are hostile—not to say fatal—to all composure of thought and sobriety of conduct. Like gambling, they inflame the imagination of their victims and their dupes, with visions of ease, and affluence, and pleasure, destined never to be realized. Like gambling, they seduce men, especially the credulous and the unthinking, from the pursuits of regular industry, into the vortex of wild adventure and exasperated passions. Like gambling, they ultimately create a necessity for constant vicious excitement. Like gambling, they often lead to poverty and despair, to insanity and to suicide. Like gambling, they furnish strong temptations to fraud, and theft, and drunkenness. Like gambling, they work, in but too many cases, a permanent depravation of all moral principle and all moral habits. This fearful parallel might easily be extended. The picture here presented of the evils of lotteries, however fearful it may seem, is not overdrawn. This picture will be owned as just, by many a bereaved widow and by many a forsaken wife, who trace all their woes to the temptation into which thisrespectableand legalized species of gambling had betrayed once affectionate husbands. It will be owned as just bymany a child, who has been doomed perchance to a heritage of ignorance and poverty, by a father, for whose weak virtue the potent fascinations of the lottery were found too strong. In many respects, the lottery system may be deemed even more pernicious than ordinary gambling. It spreads a more accomplished snare; it is less offensive to decorum; it is less alarming to consciences which have not lost all sensitiveness; it numbers among its participants multitudes of those who ought to blush and to tremble for thus hazarding their own virtue, and for thus corrupting the virtues of others; it draws within its charmed circle men and women who fill up every gradation of age, and character, and fortune.
2. The lottery system, as at present constituted, presents the strongest temptations to fraud on the part of all those who are concerned either in the drawing of lotteries or in the sale of tickets. It is not known that fraud has in any case been perpetrated, though fraud is suspected. If perpetrated, it would be no easy matter to detect it. The ignorant and the credulous men and women, who seek to better their fortunes by gambling in lottery tickets, know nothing of those mystical combinations of numbers, on which their fate is suspended. Utter strangers as they are to all the "business transactions" of the lottery system, if cheated at all, they are cheated without remedy.
3. The lottery system operates as a most oppressive tax upon the community. This tax is paid, not by the rich and luxurious—but it is paid mainly by those who are struggling for independence, and by those who earntheir bread by the sweat of their brow—by the servants in our kitchens—by clerks and apprentices, and day-labourers; by mechanics and traders; by the men and women who work in our factories; and in too many instances, it is to be feared, by our hardy yeomanry, who, impatient of the slow profits of agriculture, vainly expect from the chances of the lottery that which is never denied to the efforts of industry. The amount of pauperism and crime, of mental agitation and perchance of mental insanity, which the lottery system must create among these numerous classes, it would not be easy to calculate.
4. Lotteries are the parent of much of the pauperism which is to be found in this young, and free, and prosperous land. It entails poverty upon multitudes directly, by exhausting their limited means in abortive experiments to get rich by "high prizes"—and, yet more, by withdrawing multitudes from a dependence on labour, and accustoming them to hope miracles of good fortune from chance. After repeated disappointments, they discover, when it is too late to profit from the discovery, how sadly they have been duped, and how recklessly they have abandoned their confidence in themselves, and in that gracious Being who never forsakes those who put their trust in him. They sink into despondency, and, seeking to forget themselves, they bring upon their faculties the brutal stupor of intoxication, or they exhilarate them by its delirious gayety. Suicide is often the fearful issue. Dupin ascribes a hundred cases of suicideannuallyto the lottery system in the single city of Paris. Many years ago a lottery scheme, displaying splendid prizes, was formed in London. Adventures to a very large amount was the consequence, and the night of the drawing was signalized by fifty cases of suicide!
5. Success in lotteries is hardly less fatal than failure. The fortunate adventurer is never satisfied. He ventures again and again, till ruin overtakes him. After all the tempting promises of wealth, which are made by those concerned in this iniquitous system, how very few, except managers of lotteries and venders of lottery tickets, has it ever made rich! and well may it be asked, whom has it ever made more diligent in business, more contented, and respectable, and happy?
6. Lotteries, it is believed, are rendered especially mischievous in this country by the nature of our institutions, and by the spirit of the times. Here, the path to eminence being open to every one—but too many are morbidly anxious to improve their condition; and by means, too, which in the wisdom of Providence were never intended to command success. A mad desire for wealth pervades all classes—it feeds all minds with fantastic hope; it is hostile to all patient toil, and legitimate enterprise, and economical expenditure. It generates a spirit of reckless speculation; it corrupts the simplicity of our tastes; and, what is yet worse, it impairs, not unfrequently, in reference to the transactions of business, the obligations of common honesty. Upon these elements of our social condition and character, the lottery system operates with malignant efficacy.
The undersigned memorialists are far from thinking that, in the preceding remarks, they have exhaustedthe argument against the lottery system. They have dwelt, in general terms, upon only some of its more prominent evils. They do not allow themselves to believe that, aside from the ranks of those who have a direct personal interest in this system, a man of character could be found in Rhode Island to defend it. The memorialists deem lotteries to be in Rhode Island a paramount social evil. They entreat the General Assembly to survey this evil in all its phases, and then to apply the remedy. The interposition which is now asked at the hands of the Legislature has been delayed too long, either for the interests or for the character of the state. It is time that we protected our interests, and retrieved our character. It is time that the lottery had ceased to be the "domestic institution" of Rhode Island. It is time that we abandoned, and abandoned for ever, the policy of supporting schools, and building churches, with the wages of iniquity. The memorialists are aware that the General Assembly have made lottery grants, which have not yet expired. They seek not in any way to interfere with those grants; but in concluding this expression of their views, they cannot avoid repeating their earnest entreaty that the legislature would come up without unnecessary delay to the great work of reforming an abuse, which no length of time, or patronage of numbers, or policy of state, should be permitted to shelter for another hour.
EXTRACTSfrom a Report to the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism in the city of New York.
"It is not possible to estimate the sum that may have been drawn from the people by lottery devices. Nor is it possible to estimate the number of poor people that have engaged in lottery gambling. We have been told, that more than two hundred of these deluded people have been seen early in the mornings at the lottery offices, pressing to know their fate.Theremight be seen the anxiety, the disappointment, and mortification, of unfortunate beings, who had lost their all!
"Thus we see that this demoralizing contagion has spread its destructive influence over the most indigent and ignorant of the community. The injurious system of lotteries opens a wide door to gambling, fraud and imposition; of which the speculating, dishonest, idle, profligate and crafty avail themselves, and deceive the innocent and ignorant.
"If we place this subject in a pecuniary view as it relates to the public funds, the mischievous effect is more obvious. From an estimate, made by a gentleman of accurate calculation, it appears, that the expense, or the amount drawn from the people, to raise by lottery the net sum of 30,000 dollars, amounts to $170,500, including the expense of the managers and their attendants, the clerks and attendants of the lottery offices, the expense of time lost by poor people, and the amount paid the proprietors of lottery offices. This enormous sum is paid for the collection of only 30,000 dollars. This is, therefore, not only the most expensive, but alsothe most demoralizing method that was ever devised to tax the people.
"Upon the whole view of the subject, your committee are decidedly of opinion, that lotteries are the most injurious kind of taxation, and the very worst species of Gambling. By their insidious and fascinating influence on the public mind, their baleful effect is extended, and their mischievous consequences are most felt by the indigent and ignorant, who are seduced, deceived, and cheated out of their money, when their families are often suffering for the necessaries of life. Their principles are vitiated by lotteries, they are deceived by vain and delusive expectation, and are led into habits of idleness and vice, which produce innumerable evils, and, ultimately, end in misery and pauperism."
The numbers on lottery tickets are formed by combinations of certain numbers previously agreed upon; as from 1 to 60, 1 to 75, 1 to 78, &c., &c.
Combination consists in taking a less number of things out of a greater, without any regard to the order in which they stand; no two combinations having the same quantities or numbers.
Problem.—To find the number of combinations which can be taken from any given number of things, all different from each other, taking a given number at a time.
Rule.—Take a series of numbers, the first term of which is equal to the number of things out of which thecombinations are to be made, and decreasing by 1, till the number of terms is equal to the number of things to be taken at a time, and the product of all the terms.
Then take the natural series 1, 2, 3, &c., up to the number of things to be taken at a time, and find the product of all the terms of this series.
Divide the former product by the latter, and the quotient will be the answer.
How many combinations of 3 numbers can be taken out of 78 numbers?