WELLINGTON NEWS

Hokitika Guardian, 25 August 1931, Page 7

WELLINGTON NEWS

STATE LOTTERIES.

(Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, August 21. In most of the daily papers in the Dominion correspondents have aired their Views on State lotteries, and on the whole there are more in favour than against such lotteries. There is much to be said, for and against lotteries. Gambling cannot be eradicated, for it seems a part of human nature, and the peoples of all countries indulge in gambling in some form or another. At the same time there are those who believe that from the moral point of view lotteries are inimical to the public weal. •However, lotteries are being conducted

by states, and by private corporations that are many degrees better than the common form of betting on horse races. The lottery established by the Irish iFree State has had world-wide support. Tattersalls, in Tasmania, has been going for many years. The Queensland Government has conducted a State lottery for some time, the proceeds going towards charities and chiefly to hospitals. The Government of IS'ew South Wales has just inaugurated a iState lottery, and so keen was the demand for tickets that they were all sold practically in one day. We have become familiar with lotteries, and for the past twelve months or more one lottery has succeeded another, and the tour of our cricketers in Britain was made possible by one of these lotteries,

A contributor to an Australian oom temporary has marshalled some interest': jng facts regarding lotteries. It seems that England took to lotteries in the time of Queen Elizabeth, when Her Majesty appeared to accept the idea as a good one for raising the wind. One drawn 'in 1859 had the inducement of money prizes, plate, tapestries and other goods. In the next few decades lotteries were a well-established business, but complaints came early. For some years afterwards the Government applied the lottery attraction to its loan raising. After 1721 the Government, by Act of Parliament, declared them immoral in others while carrying on itself. Swindling and knavery were rife. Forgery, counterfeiting and altering in regard to the -tickets were easy. Merchants gave lottery tickets to purchasers, just as they now give coupons. The system became an evil, and a host of rogues and vagabonds thris'ed -on it. the last Government lottery in England was in 1826, and extraordinary efforts in advertising it were made. A lottery carriage with postilions in scarlet, the carriage surmounted with the Impeiial crown, a brass band, bill-board men on horseback and other displays toured London daily. When it was all over the London “Times” expressed the hope that its place would not be taken by some more michievous system of knavery. France had numerous lotteries run by the State, private lotteries being suppressed by decree in 1f76, a n d t e semi-official were merged into the Loterie Roy ale, which was ultimately stopped in 1836. Lotteries were suppressed in Belgium in 1830, Sweden in 1811 and Switzerland in 1865, but they existed for many years in Various other countries. In America a National lottery was instituted in Iff6, and thereafter many were authorised for public purposes. After 1833'they were prohibited, and gradually they disappeared until the only one left was in Louisiana, where a company had a monopoly for which it paid 40,000 dols (£8000) to the State. In 1890 renewal was refused and the use of the mails forbidden, when it moved to Honduras.

Lottery investments is a form of gambling which means greater odcls than any other kind. One ticket in a sweep or lottery in which there are 1,000,000 tickets means that the holder has 999,999 to 1 against him for the big first prize, and of course the odds are lessened accordingly to tho number of tickets held. Although the odds are large human nature is such that every, one likes to “try his or her luck, because it is held that somebody has gor to win, and I might be the lucky one.” Some one of course must win and there lies the attraction. Under Very strict supervision trickery and knavery can be eliminated, and we believe that the many misnamed art unions authorised in New Zealand recently have been conducted with extreme fairness, and they have all been helpful to sports' bodies and others.