Part 14 (1/2)
”7. That a reward, not exceeding .50 be paid to any person employed as a clerk or servant in any illegal Lottery Office, who shall be the means of convicting the actual or princ.i.p.al proprietor or proprietors of the said office, who shall not appear themselves in the management; also a sum not exceeding .40 on conviction of a known and acting proprietor; and a sum not exceeding .10 on conviction of any clerk or manager, not being partners.
”8. That the punishment to be inflicted on offenders shall be fine, imprisonment, or the pillory; according to the atrocity of the offence, in the discretion of the Court before which such offenders shall be tried.”
The following Plans have also been transmitted to the Author by Correspondents who appear to be well-wishers to Society. They are here made public, in hopes that from the whole of the suggestions thus offered, some regulations may ultimately be adopted by the Legislature towards effectually remedying this peculiarly dangerous and still-increasing evil.
PLAN I.
”It is proposed, that the _Prizes only_ should be drawn, and that Seven Hours and a Half per Day should be the time of drawing, instead of Five Hours, by which means a lottery of the same number of tickets now drawn in thirty-five days, would be drawn in seven days and a half; and each adventurer would have exactly the same chance as he has by the present mode of drawing; since it is evidently of no consequence to him whether all the blanks remain in the Number Wheel undrawn, or an equal number of Blanks are drawn from a blank and prize wheel; the chance of blank or prize on _each ticket_ being in either case exactly the same.
”According to the usual mode of drawing, 50,000 tickets take about thirty-five days in drawing, which is 1,420-6/7 per day.--By increasing the time of each day's drawing, from five hours to seven and a half, 2,131 tickets would be drawn each day; but as the reading prizes above .20 _thrice_, causes some little delay, I reckon only 2000 per day; at which rate 15,000 tickets, the usual proportion of prizes in a Lottery of 50,000 tickets, would be drawn in seven days and a half. Thus the _Period_ of Insurance would be nearly reduced to one-fifth part of its present duration, and the _daily_ insurance on _Blanks_, and _Blank and Prize_, which opens the most extensive field for gambling, would be _entirely abolished_. Reducing, therefore, the time of Insurance to one-fifth, and the numbers drawn to less than one-third of what they have hitherto been, there could scarce remain in Lotteries thus drawn, one-fifteenth part of the insurance as in former Lotteries of an equal number of Tickets.--It is also worthy of remark, that as all the late Lotteries have been thirty-five days at least in drawing, the Insurance Offices had thirty-four to one in their favour the first day, by which circ.u.mstance they were enabled to tempt chiefly that cla.s.s of people who can only gamble on the lowest terms, and to whom gambling is most extensively pernicious, with a very moderate premium, (_e.g._ about twelve s.h.i.+llings to return twenty pounds) which increases daily by almost imperceptible degrees, and thus insensibly leads them on to misery, desperation, and guilt.
”But in the proposed Plan, the Insurance Offices would have only six days and a half to one in their favour the first day; so that they must begin with a much higher premium than the generality of the common people can advance, which premium must each day be very considerably increased.--These considerations would undoubtedly operate as an absolute prohibition, on far the greatest part of Lottery Insurers; beside which, the great probability of numbers insured being drawn each day, would deter even the Office Keepers from venturing to insure so deeply, or extensively, as they have been accustomed to do.
”Should it be objected, that if Insurance is thus abridged, or prohibited, tickets will not sell, and the Lottery, as a source of Revenue, must be abandoned: the following expedient may, it is apprehended, effectually obviate such an objection.--
”Let Tickets, which cannot now be legally divided below a sixteenth, be divisible down to a _Sixty-fourth_ share, properly stamped; which regulation, while it would greatly benefit and encourage Licensed Offices, would equally discountenance illegal Gamblers; and whilst it permitted to the lower orders of the Community a fair chance of an adventure in the Lottery on moderate terms, would co-operate with the restrictions on Insurance to advance the intrinsic value, as well as the price of tickets, which every illegal _Scheme_ evidently tends to depreciate.”
The preceding Plan appeared in the Appendix to the fifth edition of this Treatise; in consequence of which the Author received the following observations and which therefore he presents as--
PLAN II.
”The Suggestions as far as they extend and relate to the shortening the duration of the drawing are highly useful, but they fall short of the object, and the Plan, if executed, would nearly prevent the sale of tickets, and totally so that of shares, and consequently abolish Lotteries altogether;--a consummation devoutly to be wished by every friend to the public, but under the pecuniary influences, which perhaps too much affect political considerations, little to be expected.
”It will be necessary to exhibit only a plain Statement of the proportionate chances in the wheel during the 7-1/2 days of drawing on the Scheme of 50,000 Tickets, viz.--
_Prizes._ _Blanks._
1st. Day 15,000 to 35,000 2-1/3 to a Prize 2d. --- 13,000 -- 35,000 3d. --- 11,000 -- 35,000 4th. --- 9,000 -- 35,000 5th. --- 7,000 -- 35,000 6th. --- 5,000 -- 35,000 7th. --- 3,000 -- 35,000 last. --- 1,000 -- 35,000 35 to a Prize.
”Hence it is evident, that on supposition the value of the Prizes diminish by an equal ratio, every day of drawing, still the actual value of the Prizes in proportion to the permanent number of the Blanks will be diminished by the relative proportion increasing at the rate of about 4666 Blanks every day after the first. Consequently it must follow, that the premiums of insurance, as well as the price of Shares and Tickets, instead of acquiring in their value _a very considerable increase_, must be subject to a very considerable diminution.
”To maintain the foregoing Plan, No. I. which is a good ground-work for lessening the evil, I take the liberty (says my Correspondent) of suggesting the following improvement.
”After the Prizes are drawn each day, let the proportion of the Blanks, namely, 4666 be drawn also. Let there be a suspension likewise of five or seven days between each drawing for the sale of Tickets and Shares, and to give time for insurance. It may be objected, that the time being thus prolonged the inconvenience will remain the same; to avoid which, the blank numbers so drawn, must be done secretly and sealed up by the Commissioners, or, they may be drawn openly but not unfolded or declared, and if necessary, made public after the drawing; by which means the insurance against Blanks or Blank and Prize will be equally abolished.”
PLAN III.
”The Evils of a Lottery are many.--The Advantages might, if well regulated, be as numerous. According to the Schemes that have hitherto prevailed the _principle_ has been wrong. Since the bait held out has been the obtaining of an immense fortune, and the risk has been proportionably great--Insurance has reigned unchecked by all penalties and punishments that could be devised to the ruin and misery of thousands. The price of tickets has been fluctuating, and fortunes have been won and lost on the chance of the great Prizes keeping in the Wheel: the .20 prizes have always proved dissatisfactory, as though there are only 2-1/2 prizes _on an average_ to a blank, yet such is the uncertainty, that many have scores of tickets without obtaining the proportionate advantage even from these low prizes. It is thought, therefore, that a scheme which should offer considerably more chances for prizes of and above .50, and which should ensure a return on all blanks, would be acceptable. If also it could be made to prevent insuring of tickets and capitals, it seems to be the grand desideratum in this branch of financeering.
”The principle on which these benefits may be obtained is this. There should be a considerable number of moderate prizes, such as might be fortunes, if obtained by the inferior ranks, and of consequence sufficient to answer the risk of the rich. The tickets to be drawn each day should be previously specified which may be done by appropriating a certain share of the prizes to a certain number of tickets. All the tickets not drawn prizes of .50 or upwards shall be ent.i.tled to a certain return, which would be superior to a chance for a .20 prize.
”SCHEME.
_Number of Prizes._ _Value of each._ _Total Value._ . .