The Lafayette advertiser. [volume] (Vermilionville [i.e. Lafayette], La.) 1865-19??, 1890-09-20
THE LOTTERY AND GAMBLING
Editor Lafayette A0peytiser:.


lottery question is discussed. The urti
cle quoted passage from the Times
Denocrat, in which that eminent lottery
Journal comments on the alleged incon-
sistency and hypocrisy of the people of
Iowa IN objecting to the lottery as q
gambling Institution whilst allowing
wholesale betting on horse races; and by
inference makes the same charge of in
consistency and hypocrisy against those
cilZehS OF Louisiana who oppose lotte-
ries but by silence approve betting on
morse races. This article gives me an op-
porluhitI TO examine the lottery question
III tse light of jurisprudence. which
throws upon this phase of the issue the
necessary light to enable the blurred
moral vision Of the Times Democrat to
discover that there is q good and valid
reason why betting on horse races may
be allowed, though lottery dealing be
forbidden Let us come to the issue at
once; let us plunge IN medias res. A lot
terry is distribution Of prizes by chance
Inc element OF chance in a contract
makes an aleatory or wager or gambling
contract. Every civilized system Of laws
has contained laws against pure aleatory
contracts as being mere gambling, or
tending to produce gambling. Our law
is not behind all enlightened judicial
systems i'll this regard.
Article 29s2 of the Louisiana Civil
Code'says. The aleatory contract is q
mutual agreement, of which the effects,
with respect both to the advantages and
losses, whether to all parties Or to one or
more OF them, depend on an uncertain
event"
Article 29S3 says: 1.-THE lao qre7ts no
action Jor the payment Of ecaat mas been
enoa at gaming or by d bet, ercept for qanes
intended to promote stt!E in tie uSe of arms,
S0oh us The exercise Of the qua and foot,
horse end chariot racing.5' And Us to
such games the judge may reject the de
mand when the sum appears to him ex-
cessive
Article 1854 says: I'm an causes in
which the law refuses an action 10 the
winner, 1t also refuses to suffer the loser
10 reclaim what he has voluntarily paid,
nnless there has been on the part Of the
winner fraud, deceit. or swindIing'
| Such are the plain, simple anu easily
understood provisions of the law which
embody and preserve the severe and
aastere purity of morality Of the old
Roman and civil law. No action or suit
can be brought to recover money won at
any game OF chance, except such as tend
to create skill il arms-as shooting; or
bodily vlgor-such as foot races or fine
blooded stock. by creating interest in
morse and chariot racing. The law con-
templates that to allow betting ON these
things will naturally create an interest in
them and tend to their development and
growth. The State has an interest and it
is part of its governmental functions
to promote, as far as its power goes, the
bodily vigor of its citizens, their skill in
arms, to protect the State; and the pro
duction of blooded stock, which becomes
source of wealth and opulence The
| fine bioodcd stock of Kentucky has
brought many thousand dollars into that
State. Who supposes that the impetus
would originally have been given in
| Kentucky to raising fine stock if betting
on horse racing had been legally inter
dicted? The permission to bet on horse
racing is. therefore, part of wise and
| far-seeing policy.
On the other hand these aleatory con-
| tracts, which are founded upon pure
chance, and which do nothing ia any way
to improve society or to benefit, have
|
alties and made crimes, and as far as
| their civil effects are concerned the above
provisions of our law show that no court
of Justice in Louisiana will tolerate a
gambler in its sacred precincts and per-
NIT him to say that he has violated the
principles of moral law in gambling, but
| that another has refused to give him the
thing for which they played-be it money
or anything else. A man whose fingers
are polluted with turpitude cannot come
into court of justice and allege his own
| iniauity. This principle is adhered to
| and enforced in every civilized code of
| laws. It has descended from the Roman
law through the ages like a pure crystal
stream down the mountain side. It has
passed into maxim which forms part of
every code of ethics, every system of
iurisprudence-'N Memo azlegaas saana tua'-
pitudinem est audiendus one al
leging his own iniquity shall be heard.
The gambler is spurned from the TIRES
hold of the courts of justice. The policy
Of society in enacting such laws by which
| the gambler is denied the right to invoke
| the judicial power to compel another to
give him what he has won in gambling
has deep meaning. 1t is wise and far
seeing. 1t makes jurisprudence the
handmaid of morality and religion. 1t is
intended to discourage gambling by
throwing around it no legal securities
no legal sanctions; by refusing to have
ANYTHING to do with the enforcement of
gambling contracts The thought that
| gambling is protected by no legal secur-
tiles, that it is outlawed, that its con-
tracts will not be enforced, and that the
law will not compel a man to pay. what
he has lost at gambling-tends to dis
courage gambling and to prevent its de-
velopment and growth. 1t imposes re-
striction upon it by making OF It an in.
secure and uncertain venture. The legal
sanction given to lottery gambling by
the incorporation of the lottery in the
law, and particularly in organic law, has
caused its business to flourish as it never
weuld have done if the stigma which is
affixed to every other species Of gam
bling had not been removed. BY Great
ing confidence in it, by hedging 1t with
legal securities, by removing the prohi-
bition of bringing suits to compel the
payment of prizes, the legalizatIon OF
the lottery has caused its extension and