LIMERICKS AND LOTTERIES.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 86, 4 January 1908, Page 6

LIMERICKS AND LOTTERIES.

f. ——— Tho National Anti-OambKng League, of Great Britain issued a pamphlet, on ''Newspaper Gambling Schemes: An Examination of Limerick Lotteries," by J. Scott Duckers, solicitor. Mr. Duckors .shows that in thoso limerick schemes there is a very small element of skill 'and a very largo element of chance, and the promoters arouse publicinterest by producing competitions winch combine tho maximum amount of gamble with tho minimum of skill. , The competitions are carrier! on in some cases so as to constitute frauds. The fraud consists in the representation that tho competition is judged' by some well-kuown cricketer, actor, or novelist, but assuming that the judge is qualified to jud/ze of the merit of a limerick, how can ho deal with 40,000 or more? Ho can only deal with a limited number selected by other people, and these other peoplo are almost invariably boy and girl clerics, who are told to pick out lines that strike them as bciiiK original or "smart." or in which some kind of pun is to bo discerned. The difficulty with regard to legality is the ' q-iostion of skill, but whether in point of law the competitions are lo.gal or illegal, they arc terribly harmful as' fostering the gambling instinct, and arousing .in it tens of thousands of cases where it lay.. latent.