LOTTERY, a kind of public game at hazard, in’order to raise money for the service of the state, being with us appointed by the authority of parliament, and managed by commissioners appointed by the Lords of the Treasury for that purpose. It consists of several numbers of blanks and prizes, which are drawn out of wheels, one of which contains the numbers, and the other the corresponding blanks or prizes.

The Romans invented lotteries in order to enliven their Saturnalia. This festival began by the distribution of tickets which gained some prize. Augustus made lotteries which consisted of things of little value; but Nero established some for the people, in which a thousand tickets were distributed daily, and several of those who were favoured by fortune got rich by means of them. Heliogabalus invented some very singular ones, in which the prizes were either of great value or of none at all; one gained a prize of six slaves, and another of six flies; some got - valuable vases, and others vessels of common earth.

The first English lottery which we find mentioned in history was drawn in the year 1569. It consisted of 40,000 lots, at 10s. each lot. The prizes were plate; and the profits were to go towards repairing the havens of the kingdom. It was drawn at the west door of St Paul’s cathedral. The drawing began on the 11th of January 1569, and continued incessantly, day and night, until the 6th day of May following. (Maitland, vol. i. p. 257.) There were then only three lottery-offices in London. The proposals for this lottery were published in the years 1567 and 1568. It was at first intended to have been drawn at the house of Mr Dericke, her majesty’s jeweller; but it was afterwards drawn as above mentioned.

In 1748, Dr Rawlinson showed the Antiquarian Society “A proposal for a very rich lottery-general without any blankes, contayning a great number of good prizes, as well of redy money as of plate and certain sorts of merchandizes, having been valued and prised by the com- ∣mandment of the queene’s most excellent majestie’s order, to the intent that such commodities as may chance to arise thereof, after the charges borne, may be converted towards the reparations of the havens and strength of the realme, and towards such other public good workes.” He then goes on to say, “The number of lotts shall be foure hundred thousand, and no more; and every lott shall be the summe of tenne shillings sterling, and no more. To be filled by the feast of St Bartholomew. The shew of prizes are to be seen in Cheapside, at the sign of the Queene’s Armes, the house of Mr Dericke, goldsmith, servant to the queene.”

In the reign of Queen Anne, it was thought necessary to suppress lotteries as public nuisances. Since that time, however, they have been licensed by act of parliament, under a variety of regulations. The act passed in 1778 restrains any person from keeping an office for the sale of tickets, shares, or chances, or for buying, selling, insuring, or registering, without a license; for which license each office-keeper must pay L.50, to continue in force for one year, and the produce to be applied towards defraying the expense of the lottery. And no person is allowed to sell my share or chance less than a sixteenth, on the penalty of L.50. All tickets divided into shares or chances are to be deposited in an office, to be established in London by the commissioners of the Treasury, who are to appoint a person to conduct the business thereof; and all shares are to be stamped by the said officer, who is to give a receipt for every ticket deposited with him. The numbers of all tickets so deposited are to be entered in a book, with the names of the owners, and the number of shares into which they are divided. All tickets deposited in the office are to remain there three days after the drawing. Any person keeping an office, or selling shares, or who shall publish any scheme for receiving moneys in consideration of any interest to be granted in any ticket in the said lottery, without being in possession of such ticket, shall forfeit L.500, and suffer three months imprisonment. No business is to be transacted at any of the offices after eight in the evening, except on the evening of the Saturday preceding the drawing; and no person is to keep any' office for the sale of tickets in Oxford or Cambridge, on penalty of L.20. Before this regulating statute was passed, there were upwards of four hundred lottery - offices in and about London only; but the number for all Britain, as appears by the list published by authority, afterwards amounted to’not more than fifty-one. Subsequently, however, they increased greatly in number.

Some further regulations to prevent the frauds committed by insurances were made in 1793. In 1808 the reports of a committee of the House of Commons disclosed a dreadful scene of vice and misery brought on by lotteries, and recommended their abolition, or at least that they should be put under other regulations. The gross sum received by government from the lottery was estimated at L.750,000 per annum, of which L.500,000 was for tickets, and the remainder for postages, stamps, &c. At length, lotteries, which had proved eminently prejudicial to public morals, by fostering among the people a propensity to gambling, and which, in a fiscal point of view, had yielded but a trifling amount of revenue to the state, were put an end to by a Treasury minute, which provided, that, from and after the 18th of October 1826, they should cease and determine; and this abolition was accompanied with a prohibitory declaration against all attempts on the part of individuals to revive or continue them in any mode or form whatsoever. Some years ago, however, a bill was brought into parliament for disposing, in this sort of way, of some property in Glasgow; and, as the obnoxious denomination of lottery was carefully excluded, general terms alone being employed in the bill, it accidentally escaped notice, and thus passed into a law. But it is well understood that this took place per incuriam, and that any' future attempt of a similar description will certainly prove unsuccessful.