Site
Contents:

• Home
  
• The
  Human
  Being is
  Cosmic
  
• Preface
  
• Table of
  Contents
  
• Excerpts
  
• Author's
  Note
• Endorsements
  
• To Order
  the Book
• Contact
  Author
• Related
  Links
• Trademark
  Notice
• Press Release
  
• FAQ
  

Andrew Jackson was an avid crapshooter, Henry Clay was one of the sharpest all-time poker players of Kentucky, and George Washington was a steward of the Alexandria Jockey Club, often running his horses there and at Annapolis. The poor gambled as ardently as the rich. Slaves who could not afford other forms of gambling purchased lottery tickets with the hope of winning enough money to buy their freedom. The craze for gambling, especially in lotteries, did not begin in the ‘New World.’ Lotteries are perhaps as old as mankind itself. The casting of lots is mentioned a number of times in the Bible. (A lot is the object drawn or thrown - yarrow sticks, coins, beads, bones, etc. - to make a choice by chance). In the Old Testament, Numbers 26:55, 56, the Lord tells Moses to divide land among the Israelites by casting lots. In Leviticus (Chapter 16) Aaron is commanded by God to take two goats to the door of the Tabernacle and cast lots upon them in order to determine which one was to be sacrificed and which was to be driven out into the wilderness as an atonement for the sins of the people. In the New Testament, the Roman soldiers cast lots for Jesus' robe, thus fulfilling the prophecy, "They parted my garments among them and for my clothing they cast lots" (John 19.24). Lots were also cast to determine who would fill the place of Judas as an apostle (Acts.1.16). The casting of lots is recorded in China in their most ancient of mysterious books, the I Ching. Lotteries were very popular in China around two-thousand years ago. Perhaps it is from the I Ching that lotteries evolved.

In any event, it was the Chineese lotteries which were the ancestral roots of Lotto, Bingo and Keno (Keno being an offshoot of Bingo). Eventually, lotteries came to the Western World. State Lotteries we are familiar with today date back to the Italian "La Lotto de Firenze" in 1530. From there the Lotto game spread throughout Europe and finally came to the New World with the American Settlers. It is interesting to note, however, that although our form of lotteries trace back to Europe, for thousands of years the American Indians cast lots for divining and believed that their gods were also the originators and sponsors of a variety of gambling games. Various games of chance involving color and number selections were fervently played by the Indians to capture the bows, arrows, blankets, and even squaws of their opponents. Entire villages gambled against one another often offering themselves into slavery for specified durations.

Lotteries are part of America's roots and long tradition. The desire for easy prosperity is ingrained in human nature. Avarice is as old as man, there being a bit of greed within us all. Playing the lottery is the perfect occupation and preoccupation of the impatient, since, hypothetically, what one makes in a lifetime of toil at his job he can earn immediately from the purchase of a winning lottery ticket.

In time, greed overshadowed reason. Lottery sponsors and brokers, no longer satisfied with their already hefty margin of profit from ticket sales, began cheating. And, with lotteries endemic in the United States during the early part of the ninteenth century there were plenty of "sheep" to be fleeced. Lottery games were rigged and corruption was rampant. Parallel with selling ticket for state-run lotteries, lottery brokers began conducting their own operations. Brokers often rented tickets for as many days as one liked during the drawing, thereby making many times the amount of their state-paid commissions. They also offered side bets called "insurance." A player, in addition to playing the state lottery comprising several numbers, could take out this so-called insurance by betting that a particular number or combinations of numbers would show up. Because of the extremely poor odds offered such bets were considered a suckers deal. Nevertheless, policy brokers did not go wanting for business and collected millions of dollars in nickels and dimes from unsuspecting players who were teased into continued participation by occasionally winning, albeit the pay out was a trifle sum. These side-line lottery bets, camouflaged as insurance, were the first American racket from which policy and numbers descended.

As a result of the unscrupulous abuses anti-lottery groups multiplied and became active. Clergy and reform minded citizens joined forces. Saintly puritans cried out, "What it to become of this nation?" America had become game mad. By 1830 it was said that one-half the citizens got their living by offering opportunity to the rest. In 1831 the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Virginia conducted 420 lotteries grossing $53 million in profits. Grand lotteries were held weekly with prize amounts totaling $10 million (big money even by today's standards). Such huge prize incentives drove people mad with contagious distemper. Meanwhile ministers called lottery agents "pillagers of the people" and deplored the turning aside of the poor from earnest labor and into the hands of chance. The Anti-Lottery League named lotteries "an ill-judged act of liberality."

Lottery proponents, however, claimed that lotteries stabilized national finances, the country became more prosperous, and that consequently the people enjoyed reasonable happiness. Pressured by the growing sentiment to reform, and realizing that lottery fraud and dishonesty was so prevalent and out of control, state legislators began proposing anti-lottery bills. The Governor of Massachusetts declared that lotteries were bad for the morals of the common people, chastised their use as a means of procuring government financing, and urged the general court to terminate their use. The sentiment was equally shared in New York where in 1834 a law was passed prohibiting lotteries in order to eliminate "the most ruinous and disgraceful system of gambling to which our citizens have been exposed." By 1835 most states passed anti-lottery laws to prohibit lotteries and policy betting. However, there was a loophole. Players could still buy tickets through "exchanges" which were permitted to operate and deal in lottery tickets brought in from states where they were still legal. Also, illegal lotteries flourished. And, politically entrenched contacts operated policy betting (numbers rackets) through professional gamblers and corrupt police with impunity. In spite of legislation attempting to snuff lotteries out of existence Americans maintained their reckless pursuit for quick riches.

Seeing an opportunity to capitalize on this huge national demand for lotteries the State of Louisiana decided not to abolish lotteries. Louisiana only abolished all private lotteries and passed an Act dealing itself sole authority and power to license the selling of lottery tickets. This Act planted the seed for the most corrupt, richest and politically powerful lottery that ever flourished in the United States - the Louisiana Lottery Company. Charted in 1869 and entitled to operate as a monopoly for twenty-five years for a $40,000 annual fee, the Louisiana Lottery Company spread its influence throughout the United States one way or another. It purchased newspaper companies and also advertised heavily in non-owned newspapers in order to influence public opinion to favor its lottery operations. It bribed politicians for their support. Where opposed, it sent high-powered attorneys to ward off unfriendly political attempts at changes in legislature which might challenge its monopoly to operate. Thereby it successfully fought off all efforts to prevent the sale of Louisiana lottery tickets in other states.