Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1885-05-06
IN CUBA.
Ihe state Lottery How it Helps Inn.
POVer1sh the Cubans A Shrewd
Scheme-HoPe Springs Eternal, etc.
Good Luck and Bad Luck-Tiekets
Named After Saints-A Daring Fraud
The Method of Drawing.

The Method of Drawing.
HAVANA, Cuba, April %.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
One of the channels through which this
progressive Spanish government collects it's
revenue and impoverishes its subjects is
known the Havana Royal State lottery
In the present letter 1 propose to show how
this gigantic game of chance run by the gov
eminent permeates every grade of society in
| Cuba, from the most destitute negro classes
up to the well-to-do Spanish and Cuban citi-
| zsns
The first impression of the stranger upon
arriving in Cuba is that the whole population
| is given over to the exclusive business of
buying and selling lottery tickets. Before
you Chamber out of the little boat that
l has brought you to shore, you are besieged
! by the tireless lottery-ticket yenders Their
sonorous cries ring in your ears as you pass
along the street. Men, women and children
are engaged in the business, and 1 have even
seen a blind sitting on chair by the
roadside crying mis- numbers for sale. The
stands at the street-corners for the sale of the
| same articles seemingly numberless.
On an average the drawings occur once a
fortnight. Like everything else in Cuba, the
| State lottery has been obliged to reduce its
proportions account of the general bust
ness stagnation incident upon Spanish over
| taxation and misrule. While the capital
prize always used to be $780, ZOO Spanish
| paper) it has now been reduced to 100000.
| And, whereas about 25, 900 sheets of tickets
| used to be issued, the number is about 15,-
| 900 now. At the last drawing the highest
| prize number was Ia, ,997. When I say sheets
| of tickets mean to imply that each number
| is divided into forty Gin some cases twenty
tickets; SO that if the buyer wishes to pur-
chase the full benefit of a number, he must
purchase whole sheet, or forty tickets Tin
| some instances twenty all bearing that num-
Der. For this sheet he will pay $40 in Span
| ish paper; but if he only wishes-as is most
| often the case-to take the risk of investing
! a single dollar, and thus enjoy one-fortieth
| of the prize, should his number draw, he will
| simply purchase one ticket from the sheet.
All this is nominal. In actual practice
! the purchaser pays ten cents extra on the
dollar for his ticket or sheet of tickets, for
| the reason that the government allows that
commission to be attached to the nominal
| price in order to insure against loss the num-
erous agencies engaged in the sale of its tick
cts. With some of these agents
the government is on such terms that
| on the night before the drawing it will take
on hand thus guaranteeing them a sure
thing
Naturally, not all the tickets are sold for
each drawing, and it may SO happen that the
capital prize some of the large prizes will
remain among the tickets unsold in the gov
ernment's possession. But in practice this
does not always happen. The grand total of
tickets on sale approximates 600,0 900 each
time; and as the twenty ticket sheets bring
50 per ticket, the government would take in
every fortnight from this source about $780,,
900, providing all the tickets were sold. The
prizes, if 1 have figured it up Alright, require
a disbursement Gin case all the tickets are
sold) of about $3.50, 000 First there is a capi-
tai prize of 100000. Then there is second
prize OF $50, 900, third of S25 200, and a
fourth of SIC, 200. Then follow four prizes
of S5, 900, twenty prizes of 81 900 and about
600 prizes of $400 each. Finally there
approximation prizes" of $400 each for the
| ten numbers Immediately over or above the
capital prize number, and for ten numbers
Immediately under or below the second prize.
Now and then when the government gets es-
| pecially hard up for money, as I infer, the
lottery is increased in the matter of prizes,
cost of single tickets, and time allowed be
tween drawings. The capital prize will be
half million dollars, the ticket price will be
50, and the time allowed for sale three
weeks.
Up to this point lottery seems a simple af
tickets begin their work of complicating
things. With the original tickets received
from the government basis, they issue
new Observation-Disclosures tickets and frac-
ton tickets. For the benefit of those people
who never know what it IS to have two coats
or two hats at time, fraction tickets is
sued as low in value as twenty centayos eight
cents IN American money!. The combination
tickets are also sold at very low rate. For
instance, have before me ticket costing 81
paper which drew forty cents at the last,
drawing but one. On its face are eighteen
numbers. and Spanish inscription stating
that the purchaser tacitly becomes of
company of twenty-five gentlemen buying
tickets with exactly the same face.
As there are eighteen members
and single ticket costs the same
price combination ticket, it is evident
that each combination ticket represents but
an eighteenth interest in each single ticket
bearing the number duplicated in the combi
nation system. And each single ticket
represents but one-fortieth of a whole num-
Der it follows that each of the company of
twenty-five ''friends," !" as they called
the tickets, is only entitled to onee eighteenth
of one fortieth of the prize,-should any of
his numbers draw. Thus single share in
the capital prize would amount to less than
$40. But each partner in this combination
arrangement has vague hope that two or
more of his numbers may draw.
also common, whereby A will say to B,
''You have 81 ticket and have 81 ticket.
In order to promote our mutual chances, I'll
agree to pay you half if I win, in case you
will do the same if you win" In the in
stance of the combination ticket referred to
above, the ticket-vender disposes of the ff-
teen tickets of each number remaining over
and above the twenty-five represented in
combination according to any system he
chooses, ,-singly or otherwise. But the
agent must have in his showcase the govern |
mental originals for the tickets which he |
issues, so as to exhibit them to any official |
who may happen along, and show himself of |
an lnquirinG turn of mind.
The lottery appears to be conducted on |
fair basis, l shall endeavor to show furth- |
er on; and the general confidence in the fact |
lures the people on to invest year after year,
perhaps in every lottery during the year, al |
ways buoyed up by the hope that the next |
time they may secure afiuence for life by |
means of small invest ment.
Indeed, it is not difficult for any person |
to point to some man in the circle of his ac-
quaintances as having thus drawn fortune.
The difficulty is that in looking upon this one
man the people forget how many hundreds
of acquaintance they have who are constant
ly investing but have never drawn anything
worth mentioning.
In my brief stay here 1 have formed the
of a man who drew $25, 900 on
/
SIS. The landlady at the hotel where I am
stopping had curious experience two years
ago. She had bought ticket for 50 (all
these figures are in Spanish paper, which is
worth only about two-fifths of our American
money! and then, rather disguised at herself
for having yielded to the universal lottery
craze, tried to sell it during the whole of the
week prior to the drawing. There happened
to be wealthy but fussy and very economi-
cal Cuban lady here at the time, and the lat
ter began to negotiate for half of it. She
could not bear the idea of so much risk as
was involved in purchasing the whole ticket,
and kept discussing day after day the advisa-
bility of purchasing any interest in it at all.
Finally, the night before the drawing, she
mustered up the courage to buy half the
ticket for 81, though half convinced that
she was doing rash act. The Cuban lady
was as excited as though she had been pen
niless and had drawn fortune; but was in
clined to blame her hostess because the lat
ter retained half of the ticket. The ticket | {
drew $4,000, which gave each woman
81, 900.
On the other hand, 1 have met man here
who says that for the last twenty-five years
he has spent from 81 to $50 in every lottery,
and never yet drew anything that more than
reim bursed him for his outlay and trouble
An amusing incident occurred at this hotel