The Greenville times. [volume] (Greenville, Miss.) 1868-1917, 1890-06-21
INTERESTING LOTTERY STATISTICS.


Editor New Delta: Sri propose
with your permission, to demonstrate
the unfaiFness Of all the drawings o
the Louisiana State Lottery Company
and thus to account for the source O
its enormous profits.
Let US take for the first example ths
semi-annual drawing advertised fsl
June IL. The scheme of that drawing
Is the issuance Of 100000 tickets a
$40 each, making an aggregate, if al
the tickets are sold, of $4,000, 900. Out
OF this sum they promise to distribute
Sl44 prizes, amounting to S2,15s, 500
or a fraction over So per cent Of the
sehems; so that If they should sell al
their tickets and, therefore, lose all theil
prizes, their profit on that drawing
alone would be S1,s40.4O0. 1t oughl
to be sufficient to show the rascality o.
this scheme, simply to make the state.
msnt, that in this drawing the compa,
ny can sell only 70 per cent of its tick.
cts, can lose all of the prizes, can allow
10 per cent discount to agents ON the
tickets sold, and can then make $780,,
400 les the cost Of ticket printing. and
this drawings share of office expenses
and advertising. Here is the demon
stration Of this statement.
Seventy per cent of tickets would
be S2,S00,000; deduct from this ID
per cent ($420, ,000l we have a balance
of S2,SS0,000 with which to pay prizes
amounting to So, 2,15s, 800, leaving mel
balance of$220, 400. Ofcourse draw.
ing in which the company would hold
$4,000 unsold tickets as against 10000
held by the general public, and in
which none Of the tickets held by the
company would draw prize. would
be mathematical possibility, but SO
infinitesimally improbable as not to be
thought of.
But let us apply the test established
by the literature oflotteries.
1t Is universally conceded by all au-
thorities that any lottery which dis
tributes as little as sixty per cent Of q
scheme in prizes is unfair, and that
any lottery which distributes only fifty
per cent in prizes is a fraud.
Tested by this standard the louisa.
ma Lottery Company is seven per cent
below the unfair line, and skins along
just three per cent over the fraud line
l challenge the lottery people aud all
its hirclings to point to any authorized
lottery in the world which Ia allowed
10 distribute as low as So per cent oi
its schemes in prizes.
The fixed rule of the French lotte-
rics was nineteen twenty-fourths, OF
over seventy-nine per cent. In prizes
aud twenty-fourths, or a little over
twenty per cent to the promoters.
All the lotteries authorized from time
to time by the United States Govern
ment in early days required that at
least eighty-five per cent should be dis
tributcd in prizes.
The Havana Lottery distributes over
seventy per cent.
The Hamburg Lottery, and the 9TH
or lotteries occasionally permitted on
the continent of Europe, distribute
over seventy-onc per cent.
The result of this below -fair-and-ap-
proaching-fraud method of the Louisi-
ana Lottery Company is twofold; first,
10 reduce the chance of ticket-hold-
er's winning any prize at all, and
second, to enable It to reap tho profits
which have driven Its friends and ad-
vocates to madness.
In the first place, tho holder of a
ticket in the grand drawing of June
IL has only one chance in thirty OF
winning any prize at all, while for any
individual prize his chance varies
from l in 100000 to win the capital
prize of 100000 to In about 100 to
win one of the smaller prizes of 5000.
In the second place, the company
makes out of this drawing from $780,
900 to 81 900, 900 more than any honest
lottery would make.
Even If the scheme was arranged on
the low basis Of the Havana Lottery
they would have to distribute in the
grand drawing $6S0,000 more than
their scheme calls for. This sum, dis
tributed into $500 tickets of$l00 each,
would reduce the present average
chance of winning a prize from l in
SOTO about in 10.
If the scheme was arranged as the
French plan they would have to dis
tribute $l,040,000 more in prizes,
with still further increase of the
chance Of winning prize.
1fit were arranged on the American
plan they would have to distribute
81, 100000 more, with still further re-
suits In increasing the chances of the
ticket-holders.
Let not the reader think that the
grand 18th Of June drawing stands by
itself in the gross unfairness of It's
scheme. 1t is simply q type of all 9th
ers; aud it was by having his atten-
ton called to figures of this kind that
Postmaster General Gresham declared
the Louisiana Lottery Company q
fraudulent lottery and excluded 1t
from the United States mails.
Tomorrow shall give you detail
ed statement of workings of the daily
drawings and after l finish with It, |
think | can assure you that every man
in this State who is open to convic-
tion, or who is not interested in this
particular form of pillagc, will demand
that the grand jury investigate this
robber of the people and devise some
plan to put an end to 1t.
RHoMBUs.