The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-04-17
THE WORST KIND OF GAMBLING.

The "Public Library of Kentucky" what
ever that is, may have some claims on thu
confidence and support of the people O
that State. We know nothing of its history
and character; but we do know that it,
managers are not taking a very reputable
course to raise money for it. A public
library fails of the great end of making
mankind wiser and better if it panders t.
the vice OF gambling. The conductors Of
the "Public Library of Kentucky are
guilty of this wrong on gigantic scale
They have worked off four schemes in
aid of their institution, receiving for the
sale of tickets millions of dollars, and now
announce fifth, which may, for aught we
know, be followed by a sixth, a seventh
and so on.
While the lottery business pays the pro-
moters AS well as it does in this instance
they must be very deficient in ingenuity if
they do not discover reasons or excuses for
anOther-and still another" positively the
last gift concert" The crop of fools, al
ways large, is nncommonly flourishing this
year. Safeguarding is a very weak
minded pursuit; players at faro are not
over-bnrdened with brains but the simple
tons who throw away their good money in
these games are prodigies of intellect com
pared with the people who invest in lotter-
les of the "Public Library of Kentucky"
In tOck-gambling the chances of profit or
loss may be said to be even, except that
the commissions, interest, and other expen-
ses Of doing the business, steadily run
against the gambler, and are morally sure
to ruin him at last.
At faro, if the game is honestly conducted,
the chances in favor of the banks, arising
ont of "splits," are said not to exceed ter
per cent; but this is enough, if the game
&c 10 IA <Io no, l.
gantly furnished house and supply his GUS
toners with the choicest of game suppers
and liquors free of cost, and become rich be-
sides. 1t is a matter of mathematical
demonstration that a man playing against
faro bank, whatever his capital and what
ever his luck at times, is certain to be
cleaned out Of his last dollar if he goes
often enough to the green cloth. And this,
too, on the assumption that the banker
plays square game.
Now let us see the inducements of the
Public Library lottery of Kentucky. For
the las. (the fourth) drawing there were
sold B, 900 tickets at $50 each, making the
total OF money received $2,25O, 900. The
prizes distributed amount to only 81, l25, 900,
or half the money taken in, a proportion
altogether too small for a lottery which puts
on the pretensiOns of fairness and liberality
affected by this one. The total of prizes
awarded should be at least three. fonrths of
the gross receipts, and then would leave a
handsome balance for the institution to be
benefited The number of prizes announced
to be distributed is $4,000, but IL 900 are for
only S37 so each, and the other thousand
represent various sums up to the capital
prize of S1S7 800.
LOTTERY was one TO four, and the probabli-
ties were very great that the prize drawn
would be actually less than the sum put in!
In other Words IA man invests $50 in order
shat he may have, practically, one chance
out of four to draw S37 So His chances of
drawing one of the considerable prizes are.
on the whole, less than the chances of his
being struck by lishuning Not one of the
people who bought whole or a fractional
ticket in the Kentucky Lottery dreams of
the possibility of being killed by thunder
bolt; but all of them were silly enough to
count on the strong LIKELIHOOD of drawing
the capital prize. OF such poor stuff are
gamblers made.
These lotteries are especially detestable
when they fleece the public under the guise
OF doing benevolent work. Men and
women who might object to the Havana lot
terry, pure and simple, allow themselves to
be fooled into subscribing for "gift con-
cert" which is but the sneaking name for the |
worst kind OF lottery. when it is proposed to |
devote any part of the proceeds to an OBJ
iect nominally public spirited or charitable
The Kentucky schemes attack generous
but thonghtless persons on their
weak side, and are far more dangerous to |
public morals than the unadulterated gam
bling concerns, which do not affect to APP
peal to anything but the most sordid
avarice.
We have little pity for fools who part with
their money in gambling ventures and it
IS only waste of words, ordinarily. to try
to save them from their folly; but we take
the pains to point ont the delusions of the
Kentucky lotteries for the benefit of those
who may be deceived into the belief that
5hese schemes differ in anything from vulgar
gambling. They do not, except that the
of getting ones money back
ire much less than in most schemes of
chance. The law should be enforced against
he selling or advertising of these lotteries
n New York.-N. Y. Journal Of Commerce.