The Washington critic., 1890-02-17
LOTTERY PROFITS.
. -. a. M ff-yYrs NJ.

from me fHuudetphtd fTeSSl
The attempt to secure charter for the !
Louisiana Lottery Company from the North |
Dakota Legislature has served to bring that
gigantic combination for gambling promi- |
nently before the public. Its existence has
long been disgrace to the State and to the
nation, but so quietly does It do its work
that few are aware of the magnitude of its
operations. 1t has learned that too much
publicity is not good for 1t, and that sys-
tcmatic, quiet effort will bring to it more
dupes than conspicuous advertising. But
like the cuttle-fsh, its tentacles stretch out
in every direction and draw to it victims,
from whom 1t sucks its financial life-blooi.
The Louisiana Lottery has now been in
existence about twenty-five years, and II
the reports of its income are trustworthy
it has received during that time several
hundred millions of dollars. An estimate
recently made of its annual income gave
the following as the receipts for recent
year through different classes of letters:
Registered $50 600 Ss00Oj0 Slv,0JO000
Postal Order. 10000 100000 1926 1900
Ordinary. $500 2S,OCO 2.737,oOo
s67,5Oo sa.Oa5,OOo s2i,Oa7,5oo
These figures are said to be "frozen
facts" and capable of verlfication. The
letters received by the company are re-
ported to average at least 5000 day, or
about one.third Of the total mail going to
New Orleans, city of about 100000 peo-
pie. The outgoing lottery mail Is esti-
mated to be nearly 10000 letters day, or
two-thirds of the mail going from New
| Orleans.
These facts and figures will serve to
show the gigantic proportions of this lot
tery scheme. OF the S25, ,000,000 it receives
annually not one-third goes back in prizes.
| OF the cost of operating the business no
one but those intimately concerned in its
affairs can give n trustworthy estimate.
But they are probably not oDe-half the
| gross profits, leaving 50 900, 900 as the net
revenue which the company derives from its
business. For this enormous sum it makes
no return to the country. 1t produces
nothing and consumes everything. The
| S25, ,000, GOO year it receives might as well
be dumped into the sea for all the good it
does the country 1t is dead loss. 1t is
squandered, dissipated, wasted and thrown
away, entailing greater financial loss upon
the country than the phenomenal storms of
last June, which wiped one whole city oIt
of existence and brought desolation to many
valleys.
If this were the only injury this lottery
scheme inflicted the country could bear it,
But the moral damage it does is far greater
than the material. Hundreds of thousands
of youths and grown men and women are
allured by its attractive circulars, aud in
vest their harG-carned dollars in this sink
of money. One venture does not satisfy
them, but, trusting to luck for turn in the
wheel Of fortune, they go on year af. er
year gambling in tickets. They become
morally demOralized No State has suf-
fered more from this disreputable business
than California, the amount which goes
from that State to the Louisiana Lottery
being estimated at 100000 month.
Earnest efforts have accordingly been male
TO break it up, and to prove to its victims
how they are 1eeced the following table
was constructed, showing the amounts to be
won and the odds against winning: