A Great American Lottery.

Auckland Star, Volume XXI, Issue 276, 22 November 1890, Page 4 (Supplement)

A Great American Lottery.

There is a good deal of excitement in the United States about the Louisiana State Lottery Bill, which has passed both House g of the Legislature in Louisiana, and, though vetoed by the Governor of the State, has been repassed over his head. The matter interests the whole country ; for, while the lottery exists only in Louisiana, the public which buys its tickets is recruited from all the States ; and, in fact, only a very small proportion cf the investors in the lottery are Louisianians—about 3 per cent. Thus the question interests the States in which lottorios are illegal even more than it does Louisiana, which has legalised tho lottery. The reason for this is that where the traitie in lottery tickets is a misdemeanour or felony it has to be carried on in a half secret manner, in defiance of the law. Those engaged in it are constantly subject to blackmail by blacklegs, by the police or by anybody who has either knowledge or power to bring the force of the law against them. How well the business pays the lottery company is shown by the fact that (according to ' Galignani , ) ib can turn over to the State £250,000 per annum as a special tax. / The Biggest Lottery is the World. The Louisiana State lottery is the largest concern of its kind in the world. Ib turns oyer far more money that Monte Carlo or either of the lotteries afc Havana or Hamburg. Its scheme provides for 312 daily and 12 monthly drawings annually, thus : —' Two grand extraordinary semi-annual drawings, with 100,000 tickets of £B,yielding if all the tickets were sold £1,600,000. Ten monthly drawings with 100,000 tickets each of £4, yielding £4,000,000. Three hundred and twelve daily drawines with about 75,000 tickets at a dollar each, only a small proportion of which are sold; besides policy tickets without a limit.' The total ia the scheme is over £10,000,000 if all the tickets are disposed of. The daily drawings, however, cat by a small figure to-day, the tickets being sold exclusively in Louisiana and mainly in New Orleans, and tho monthly drawing has become the principal source of revenue of the company. Between 65 and 70 per cent, of the monthly tickets are sold, producing a gross revenue of £3,725,000 a year. The lottery company pays back per cent, of the money ib receives in prizes ranging in value from £2 to £120,000, the number of prizes for each drawing being 3,124; 15 per cent, to dealers or clubs 10 per cent for ordinary, and 5 per cent, for extraordinary, expenses, leaving a net profit of £650,000 on the monthly drawings. With tho -daily drawing the total annual profits of the company are £725,000, which is increasing at the rate of from 10 to 20 per cents, a year. The tickets are sold in halves, quarters, tenths, twentieths and fortieths. About 15,000,000 ' pieces ' of the monthly tickets are disposed of annually, of which 14,550,000 are sold outside Louisiana, or abceat 1,200,000 a month, mainly in the United States and Canada. It is safe, therefore, to place the number of lottery players in the country outside Louisiana, who buy one or more tickets at 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 a year. Its Rise and Progress. The lottery was incorporated in 1868. At that time Louisiana was paying out £240,000 a year to the Royal Havana Lottery of Cuba ; and the patriotic argument that it would be better to keep this money at home prevailed, and the lottery company was incorporated. It transferred its franchise to Messrs Howard and Simmons, who had been agents of the Kentucky Lottery and had great experience in the business, and Mr Charles T. Howard became its manager. The company was weak at first. It had a capital of only £50,000, yet the stock (now worth £280) fell-ac low ac £8. Its operations were confined toXouisiana at first, and ib had dangerous rivals in the

Pcoyal Havana and the various other lottery companies then in operation in America. It was nob until 1877 thafc it attracted national attention. By that time it had extended its operations aud was selling its tickets in various parts of the country.