The New Orleans daily Democrat. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1877-1880, 1878-06-06
THE LOTTER 7.
THE CHANGES AGAINST WINNING A
FREE BN THE LOUISIANA STATE
LOTTERY COMPANY.
Plenty Of Tickets and Very Few Prizes 90
The DispTOpOrtIOn In the Prizes as
Compared with the Chances
Against winning Them.


| a visitor to New Orleans Is
| THE NUMBEE or LOTTERY OFFICES IN THIS
CITY.
| These arc scattered 0vcrywhHre in every dis
| trirt and section; there is scarcely square
! bat boasts Of at least one Of these gambling
! denS; no part Of our city is too poor to sup
| port them. You may have 10 60 q mile or
rnnr" TO get your marketing, to walk Mt least
| q dOZHn squares for q loaf bread, but In no
| instance have you got to go more than d
square to buy your lottery tiCket-a shop is
| always close and convenient. These estab-
| lishmonts fiaunt their signs everywhere with
some CatchwFd to seduCe the passer-by,
some fictitious story Oi great prizes won to
| invite the msOphistiCatcd wayEarer to be-
| como victim.
Strangers who geo these establishments,
who notice the immense number Of stores
| given up to the sale Of lottery tickets, are
naturally gr0atiy surprised at the immense
! proportions which
THE LOTTERY BUSINESS
has attained here. There is scarcely a letter
| from New Orleans but comments at length on
| our lottery shops and our Lottery Company,
and one visitor sarcasticaliy remarks that the
| to be the peddIing Of bananas and lottery
| tickets, all other branches Of trade are insig
nitiCaRt compared with these.
| To the New Orleans people It is scarcely
| necessary to speak Of the Lottery Company,
| to tell the amount Of the business done by it,
| the number Of its shops it supports, and the
army Of wretches it victmizes. It Is scarcely
necessary to tell Of the power and influence
| Of this gigantic corporation the events Of the
| past few days have told the whole story Of
| the Lotterys power and dominion for the
| first time; it is Supcrfluous to tell Of the
| misery it has done, the lives and fortunes it
| has wrecked; but there is one fact concerning
the Lottery Company and lottery tickets
! which even our own people are grossly ignO-
, rant Of, and it is to this
IGNORANCE ON THEIR PART
that the Louisiana Lottery Company owes
the greater portion OF it's earnings; it Is this
ignorance that is pouring tens Of thousands
Of dollars daily into the treasury of the Lot
terry Company, to be used in debasing our
| Judges and prostituting our politics. Our
people are laboring under the delusion that
the Lottery Company isan honest and square
gambling institution, offering players fair
| prizes for the chances they take in buying
| lottery tickets.
| Every one knows the 8eduCtivenesS OF gam
! bling, the pleasures of winning, the excite
nnent oven Of losing There are thousands of
| persons who cannot resist gambling, but how
many persons are there fools enough to vol
UNFAIRLY play difficult game Of chance with
| out knowing in the least any Of the rules or
principles Of the game? Yet this is just what
our people do when they play HOward's lot
| terry schemes.
There are scores Of men in this city that
have been playing the lottery for years, until
| that VOraCiOus monster has swallowed up all
| the money they could rake together, until
| they have wrecked their lives, their fortunes
and their happiness yet we doubt II q single
ono Of this mighty army Of lottery gamblers
| knows how outrageOusy he is swndIed, has
the faintest idea Of
THE CHANCES AGAINST HIS WINNING ANY
THING AT ALL.
We have taken the trouble to test Dublic
opinion on this subject, and have INQUIRED Of
desperate lottery gamblers how many tickets
there are in the daily drawings Of the lottery,
and what are the exact chances Of winning q
big prize1 We have questioned hundred
persons or more on this point, and have not
yet met a man who knew exactly how many
chances there were against his winning q
prize when he purchased printed ticket or
bet on q gig or saddle. All acknowledged
their ignorance on this subject few pre-
tended to guess, and all guessed wrong. The
Lottery Company and lottery dealers very
wisely keep silent on this subject knowing
well that If the mysteries Of their game we're
laid bare the chances against winning any
thing known, they would have TO shut up
their shops for want Of business.
The company CirCulates myriads Of pro-
granmes, cards and circulars; it fills the ''in-
dependent press with its advertisements,
but in none Of thes" many documents can you
find word about the number Of tickets and
combinations in the daily drawing, the chances
against winning.
Any player who wants the whole truth,
who desires to see how badly he is victimized,
has simply to turn to his algebra and look
over
THE rEonLEN or rEEWrTATroSs AND c0MBI-
NATIONS,
the law Of chances.
There are, this teaches us, exactly 76,076
combinations Of three numbers each whenever
seventy eight numbers are placed in the
wheel Of tn" Lottery Company; and 81, ,525 com
bnati0n5 when 7eventy-five numbers are
placed in the wheel. Your chances, therefore,
Of winning tn" capital prize in the daily draw
ing Of tn" lottery l. A. one in 76,O76; equiva-
lent tO th" chanc" Of cutting the ace Of spades
ia pack Of cards I11} times consecutively.
No wonder is it, therefore, that despite the
number ii tickets daily sold, the columns Of