The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1858-12-18
The Lotteries of the United states.


A new movement is on foot against lot
teries. Sergeant Barney, Of the New York
Mayors office, has just returned from a
months tour in eleven Southern States, on
lottery hunting expedition, with informa-
ton relative to the exact condition of lotte-
ries, and the Journal IF Commerce gives the
following as the fruit OF bis inquiries:
All the lotteries in the Union at the pres
ent time are located at the South, though
about three-fourths of their profits are de-
rived from the North and West. These in
s,itut ems are distributed as follows: Ma
fvlan6 ID (whose charter expires on the 1st
OF \ pril, 1899 Kentucky ,, Missouri l =,
Georgia l. The charters Of all but one Of
these lotteries expire in about three yeaTs
In most Of the Southern States, lottery
charters were originally granted to colleges,
schools, bridge companies, academies, &c,
fer the purpose ofraising funds to the ex-
tent Of from s. 900 to 100000. This priv
ilege was greatly abused. lotteries which
were empowered to draw scheme of few
thousand dollars, sometimes drawing
schemes amounting to millions There ara
few lotteries in the United States which con
fo:m 10 the laws, or the terms of their char
ter; but it is extremely difficult to detect
their invasions.
Some of the Lotteries are conducted on a
gigantic scale. One of them expends about
$500, 900 yearly in advertising aad other ex-
pcnses, draws over 600 schemes and issues
tickets to the amount oy $500, 90 600 year
". The total amount OF schemes published
by all the lotteries in the United States is
probably not less than $500, 900.
The proprietcrs profess to distribute ali
o. this vast amount in prizes, but it is sup
posed ;hgt not over $40 100000 is actually
paid out. Not more than one-thirA of thc
whole scheme is even priatod, and OF that,
Cne.eichtll is sold, on an average-makIng
the receipts from scheme of 500, 900,
about $40, 600 of which the proprietors re-
ceived ID per cent. clear proiit-the rest 60
ing to agents and to defray expenses. Most
lotteries issue scheme every day; and, as
the profits are pretty uniform and steady,
it vii, be readily seen that the business pays
enormous dividends.
The lotteries DO no. pay as much or as
large prizes as they used to. Years ago
prizes averaging from $1,000 to $4,000
were frequently sold, and the lottery bust
ness was teen conducted with comparative
oonesty; but Of late years prizes are few
and far between, although tie number of
purchasers is much larger than ever before,
and is rapidly increasing. During the last
year the largest prize issued was $50, OOO.-
The prizes now generally sold vii! not aver
age more than 5000
In American lotteries the capital prize is
generally not only not Sold but is not even
prin.sd once in hundrrd times. The 1otte-
ries in this country are now flushed with
power, and will be made even stronger bv
the combination of all of them except one in
Kentucky and one in Delaware, in the
hands of noted lottery and policy dealer
in this city. Unless strong efforts are made
in the South to regulate the lotteries now
existing there, and to prevent the re.chart-
ering OF them, the mischief resulting there
from will rapidly increase, year after year