Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1934-06-28
LOTTERY ALLURE
FOR CENTURIES
One of Most Ancient Forms
of Gambling.

1t is curious that proposals for a
strict curb on stock exchange gam
bling should coexist with rising de-
mand for the release of similar curbs
on gambling elsewhere. In some con-
gressional circles margin trading is
considered wicked in itself. The pro-
fessional Spectator, fleeing from the
stock exchange, Is now to be driven
out of the commodity exchange like
wise. And yet, at almost the same
moment, states are legalizing race
track gambling, for years under the
ban; cities are considering means of
capitali5ing on the gambling propen-
stiles Of their citizens, and even the
federal government itself is being
urged to adopt national lottery.
Many profess to see no inconsis-
tency in this. They hold that while
speculation ought to be sharply re-
stricted on the exchanges, for the pro-
lection of the investor and the whole
industrial system, the gambling in
0SAhNb 40 wv uCCp-SCdICu " u6
pressed altogether. Taking as their
text Mrs. Roosevelt's recent remark,
1T seems impossible to say to people
you shall not gamble" they propose
first to give them such national out
let's for their speculative impulses as
horse racing and, second, to turn at
least part of the proceeds into pub
lie channels. Hard times have been
as potent an influence in this effort
as changing moral standards. In
deed, lotteries are regarded by their
sponsors, like Representative Kenney
If New Jersey, author Of the billion
dollar veterans lottery bill, primarily
as means of raising money to fill
depleted government treasures.
The lottery is an ancient institu-
ton. The Promised Land was divided
among the twelve tribes of Israel by
lot. Queen Elizabeth introduced the
lottery into England in 1860, and for
more than two centuries it was reg
ular source of public revenue in that
country, soon spreading to France.
Germany, Spain and Austria. Eng
land raised money for the British mu-
scum by means of lottery. Kings
college, now Columbia university, was
founded on the proceeds of a lottery.
We are told that the first French lot
terry, held in 1851, was won by the
king, an outcome which for time
dampened the ardor of his subjects.
After having been under the ban for
a hundred years, the French lottery
was re-established and met with in
slant popular enthusiasm. The best
known and most widely patronized
lotteries in the world today are the
Irish Free State sweepstakes and the
Calcutta sweepstakes.
Opponents of lotteries point to the
long record of corruption and crook
edness associated with them during
their early use here and abroad. They
condemn them on social as well as
moral grounds, pointing to the fact
that the desire on the part of hun
dreds of thousands of Americans to
get rich quick in this fashion was
one of the causes of our financial
crash. 1t is also argued that lotteries
with cheap tickets have their great
est appeal to persons with small in
comes, and therefore operate as an
anti-social tax on the poor. In con-
sidering the attitude of government
toward gambling 1t is possible to
draw line between those measures
which recognize changing moral
standards, wide interest in horse
racing, the difficulty Of enforcing pro-
hibitory statutes, and even the de-
STABILITY Of obtaining some public re-
turn from various sporting events,
and those measures which seek to
put the government, whether federal
state or local, directly into the bust
ness of promoting an outright gam
bling institution like lottery.
A British royal commission ap-
pointed to investigate the subject
brought in report last year oppos.
ing the re-establishment of lotteries
in England on the ground that pri.
vate lotteries invited fraud, that the
government should not engage in
practices offensive to many of Its
citizens, that the psychological ef'
feet of a national lottery would be
bad, and that the income would be
only trifiing.-New York Times.