FRAUDULENT INSURANCES IN THE LOTTERY.
| 350 Insurance Offices at 100l. a day average, during the 33 days of the Irish Lottery | 1,155,000 | |
| 400 Insurance Offices at 150l. a day average, during the 33 days[38] of the English Lottery | 1,980,000 | |
| 3,135,000 | ||
| Total | 10,460,000 |
This aggregate is only to be considered as shewing the mere interchange of property from one hand to another; yet when it is recollected that the operation must progressively produce a certain loss, with not many exceptions, to all the innocent and unsuspecting adventurers either at Pharo or the Lottery, with an almost uniform gain to the proprietors; the result is shocking to reflect upon.—To individual families in easy circumstances where this unfortunate mania prevails, as well as to the mass of the people who are fascinated by the delusion of the Lottery Insurances, it is the worst of all misfortunes.—By seizing every opportunity to take advantage of this unhappy bias, it is no uncommon thing to see the pennyless miscreant of to-day become the opulent gambler of to-morrow: leaving the unhappy sufferers often no alternative but exile, beggary, or a prison; or perhaps, rendered desperate by reflecting on the folly of their conduct, to end their days by suicide,[39] while wives, children, and dependants are suddenly reduced from affluence to the lowest abyss of misery.
In contemplating these vast establishments of regular and systematic fraud and depredation upon the Public, in all the hideous forms which they assume, nothing is so much to be lamented as the unconquerable spirit which draws such a multitude of the lower ranks of Society into the vortex of the Lottery.
The agents in this iniquitous System, availing themselves of the existence of the delusion, spare no pains to keep it alive; so that the evil extends far and wide, and the mischiefs, distresses, and calamities resulting from it, were it possible to detail them, would form a catalogue of sufferings of which the opulent and luxurious have no conception.
Of how much importance therefore is it to the Public at large, to see these evils suppressed; and above all, to have this novel System completely annihilated, by which Gambling Establishments have been formed upon commercial principles of methodical arrangements, with vast capitals employed for the most infamous and diabolical purposes.
Let those who have acquired wealth in this way be satisfied with what they have gotten, and with the misery their gains have occasioned to ruined thousands: let them abstain from employing it in channels calculated to extend these evils. The Law is generally slow in its operations: but it seldom fails to overtake the guilty at last.
To this Confederacy, powerful in wealth, and unrestrained by those considerations of moral rectitude, which govern the conduct of other men engaged in the common pursuits of life, is to be attributed those vast additional hazards to which the young and inexperienced have been subjected—Hazards, which not only did not exist before these establishments were matured and moulded into System; but which were considerably increased, from its becoming a part of the general arrangements to employ men of genteel exterior, (and it is to be feared too, in many instances of good connections) who, having been ruined by the delusion, descended as a means of subsistence, to accept the degrading office of seeking out those customers, whose access to money rendered them proper objects to be ensnared.—For such was the nature of this new System of destruction, that while a young man entering upon life, conceived himself honoured by the friendship and acquaintance of those who were considered to be men of fashion, and of good connections, he was deluded by splendid entertainments into the snare, which afterwards robbed him of his property and peace of mind.
Such were the arrangements of this alarming and mischievous Confederacy, for the purpose of plundering the thoughtless and unwary.—The evidence given in the Court of King's Bench, in an action, tried for Gaming, on the 29th November, 1796, served pretty fully to develope the shocking System of fraud pursued, after the inexperienced and unwary were entrapped into these receptacles of ruin and destruction.[40]
While a vice, ruinous to the morals and to the fortunes of the younger part of the Community who move in the middle and higher ranks of life is suffered to be pursued in direct opposition to positive statutes,—surely, blame must attach somewhere!
The idle vanity of being introduced into what is generally, but erroneously, termed genteel society, where a fashionable name announces an intention of seeing company, has been productive of more domestic misery and more real distress, poverty, and wretchedness to families in this great City (who but for their folly might have been easy and comfortable,) than many volumes could detail.
A mistaken sense of what constitutes human happiness, fatally leads the mass of the People who have the means of moving in any degree above the middle ranks of life, into circles where Faro Tables and other games at hazard are introduced in private families:—Where the least recommendation (and Sharpers spare no pains to obtain recommendations) is a passport to all who can exhibit a genteel exterior; and where the young and the inexperienced are initiated in every propensity tending to debase human character; while they are taught to view with contempt every acquirement, connected with the duties which lead to domestic happiness, or to those qualifications which can render either sex respectable in the world.
When such infamous practices are encouraged and sanctioned by high-sounding names,—when sharpers and black-legs find an easy introduction into the houses of persons of fashion, who assemble in multitudes together, for the purpose of playing at those most odious and detestable games of hazard, which the Legislature has stigmatised with such marks of reprobation, it is time for the Civil Magistrate to step forward:—It is time for him to feel, that, in doing that duty which the Laws of his Country impose on him, he is perhaps saving hundreds of families from ruin and destruction; and preserving to the infants of thoughtless and deluded parents that property which is their birth-right: but which, for want of an energetic Police in enforcing the Laws made for their protection, is now too frequently squandered; and the mind is tortured with the sad reflection, that with the loss of fortune, all opportunities (in consequence of idle habits) are also lost, of fitting the unfortunate sufferer for any reputable pursuit in life, by which an honest livelihood could be obtained.
In this situation, the transition from the plain gamester to the fraudulent one, and from that to every other species of criminality, is easily conceived: and it is by no means an unfair conclusion, that this has been the fate of not a few who have been early introduced into these haunts of idleness and vice; and who, but for such an education, might have become useful members of the State.
The accumulated evils, arising from this source, are said to have been suffered to continue, from a prevailing idea, that Persons of Rank and their immediate associates were beyond the reach of being controlled, by laws made for the mass of the People; and that nothing but capital offences could attach to persons of this condition in life.
If these evils were, in fact, merely confined to Persons of rank and fortune, and did not extend beyond that barrier where no general injury could accrue to Society, there might be a shadow of excuse (and it would be but a shadow) for not hazarding an attack upon the amusements of the Great, where the energy of the Laws to controul their œconomy may be doubtful: but surely in the present case, where the mischief spreads broad and wide, no good Magistrate can or ought to be afraid to do his duty, because persons in high life may dare to sanction and promote offences of a nature the most mischievous to Society at large, as well as to the peace, comfort, and happiness of families.
If the exertions of the Magistracy are to be suspended until the Higher Ranks see the frivolity, the shameful profligacy and the horrid waste of useful time, as well as the cruel destruction of decent and respectable families in that point of view which will operate as an antidote to the evil, it is much to be feared that it must, under such circumstances, become incurable.
But there are other inducements, more nearly allied to the occurrences in humble life, which render it in a particular degree incumbent on Magistrates to make trial, at least, whether there is not sufficient energy in the law to control the hurtful vices of the higher, as well as the middling, and inferior ranks of the People: The examples of the great and opulent, operate most powerfully among the tribe of menial servants they employ; and these carry with them into the lower ranks that spirit of gambling and dissipation which they have practised in the course of their servitude; thus producing consequences of a most alarming nature to the general interests of the Community. To the contagion of such examples, is owing in a great measure the number of persons attached to pursuits of this kind, who become the Swindlers, Sharpers, and Cheats, of an inferior class, described in the [preceding Chapter]: and from the same source spring up those Pests of Society, The Lottery Insurers, whose iniquitous proceedings we shall in the next place lay before the Reader.
These, with some exceptions, are composed of persons, in general very depraved or distressed: the depredations committed on the Public by their means are so ruinous and extensive as to require a consideration peculiarly minute: in order to guard the ignorant and unwary, as much as possible, against the fatal effects of that fraud and delusion, which, if not soon checked, bid fair to destroy all remains of honesty and discretion.—These Classes consist of
Sharpers, who take Lottery Insurances, by which means gambling, among the higher and middling ranks, is carried on, to an extent which exceeds all credibility; producing consequences to many private families, otherwise of great worth and respectability, of the most distressing nature; and implicating in this misery, the innocent and amiable branches of such families, whose sufferings, arising from this source, while they claim the tear of pity, would require many volumes to recount; but silence and shame throw a veil over the calamity: and, cherished by the hopes of retrieving former losses, or acquiring property, in an easy way, the evil goes on, and seems even yet to increase, in spite of every guard which the Legislature has repeatedly endeavoured to establish.
With a very few exceptions all who are or have been proprietors of the Gambling Houses are also concerned in the fraudulent Insurance Offices; and have a number of Clerks employed during the drawing of the two Lotteries, who conduct the business without risk in counting-houses, where no insurances are taken, but to which books are carried, not only from all the different Offices in every part of the town, but also from the Morocco-Men; so called, from their going from door to door with a book covered with red leather for the purpose of taking insurances, and enticing the poor and the middle ranks to become adventurers.
Several of the Keepers of Insurance Offices, during the interval of the drawing of the English and Irish Lotteries have invented and set up private Lotteries, or Wheels, called by the nick-name of Little Go's, containing Blanks and Prizes, which are drawn for the purpose of establishing a ground for Insurance; the fever in the minds of the lower order of the people is thus kept up, in some measure, all the year round, and produces incalculable mischiefs; and hence the spirit of gambling becomes so rooted from habit, that no domestic distress, no consideration, arising either with the frauds that are practised, or the number of chances that are against them, will operate as a check upon their minds.
In spite of the high price of provisions, and of the care and attention of the Legislature in establishing severe checks and punishments for the purpose of preventing the evil of Lottery Insurances, these criminal agents feel no want of customers; their houses and offices are not only extremely numerous all over the Metropolis; but in general high-rented; exhibiting the appearance of considerable expence, and barricadoed in such a manner, with iron doors and other contrivances, as in many instances to defy the arm of the Law to reach them.
In tracing all the circumstances connected with this interesting subject, with a view to the discovery of the cause of the great encouragement which these Lottery Insurers receive, it appears that a considerable proportion of their emolument is derived from menial servants in general, all over the Metropolis; but particularly from the pampered male and female domestics in the houses of men of fashion and fortune; who are said, almost without a single exception, to be in the constant habit of insuring in the English and Irish Lotteries.
This class of menials, being in many instances cloathed as well as fed by their masters, have not the same calls upon them as labourers and mechanics, who must appropriate at least a part of their earnings to the purpose of obtaining both food and raiment.
With a spirit of gambling, rendered more ardent than prevails in vulgar life, from the example of their superiors, and from their idle and dissipated habits, these servants enter keenly into the Lottery business; and when ill luck attends them, it is but too well known that many are led, step by step, to that point where they lose sight of all moral principle; impelled by a desire to recover what they have lost, they are induced to raise money for that purpose, by selling or pawning the property of their masters, wherever it can be pilfered in a little way, without detection; till at length this species of peculation, by being rendered familiar to their minds, generally terminates in more atrocious crimes.
Upon a supposition that one hundred thousand families in the Metropolis keep two servants upon an average, and that one servant with another insures only to the extent of twenty-five shillings each, in the English, and the same in the Irish Lottery, the aggregate of the whole will amount to Half a Million Sterling.
Astonishing as this may appear at first view, it is believed that those who will minutely examine into the Lottery transactions of their servants, will find the calculation by no means exaggerated; and when to this are added the sums drawn from persons in the middle ranks of life, as well as from the numerous classes of labourers and artisans who have caught the mania; it ceases to be a matter of wonder, that so many Sharpers, Swindlers, and Cheats, find encouragement in this particular department.
If servants in general, who are under the control of masters, were prevented from following this abominable species of gambling; and if other expedients were adopted, which will be hereafter detailed, a large proportion of the present race of rogues and vagabonds who follow this infamous trade, would be compelled to become honest; and the poor would be shielded from the delusion which impels them to resort to this deceitful and fraudulent expedient; at the expence sometimes of pledging every article of household goods, as well as the last rag of their own, and their children's wearing apparel, not leaving even a single change of raiment!
This view of a very prominent and alarming evil, known to exist from a variety of facts well established and evinced, among others, by the pawnbrokers' shops overflowing with the goods of the labouring poor, during the drawing of the three Lotteries, ought to create a strong desire on the part of all masters of families, to exert their utmost endeavours to check this destructive propensity; and to prevent, as far as possible, those distresses and mischiefs which every person of humanity must deplore. The misery and loss of property which springs from this delusive source of iniquity, is certainly very far beyond any idea that can be formed of it by the common observer.[41]
A general Association, or perhaps an act of Parliament, establishing proper regulations, applicable to this and other objects, with regard to menial servants, would be of great utility.
If a Legislative regulation could also be established, extending certain restrictions to the members of the different Friendly Societies situated within the Bills of Mortality, with regard to Fraudulent Lottery Insurances, above seventy thousand families would be relieved from the consequences of this insinuating evil; which has been so fatal to the happiness and comfort of a vast number of tradesmen and artisans, as well as inferior classes of labourers.[42]
Such prohibitions and restraints would have a wonderful effect in lessening the profits of the Lottery-Office Keepers; which, perhaps, is the very best mode of suppressing the evil.—At present, the temptation to follow these fraudulent practices is so great, from the productive nature of the business, that unless some new expedient be resorted to, no well-grounded hope can be entertained of lessening the evil in any material degree.
In addition, therefore, to what has already been suggested on the subject, other expedients have occurred to the Author; and some have been suggested by persons well informed on this subject.
The Lottery in itself, if the poorer classes could be exempted from its mischiefs, has been considered by many good Writers and Reasoners as a fair resource of Revenue; by taxing the vices or follies of the People, in a country where such a considerable proportion of the higher and middling ranks are possessed of large properties in money, and may be induced, through this medium to contribute to the assistance of the State, what would (probably to the same extent) be otherwise squandered and dissipated, in idle amusements.
It is a means also of benefit to the Nation, by drawing considerable sums of money annually from foreign Countries, which are laid out in the purchase of tickets.
In many respects therefore, it might be desirable to preserve this source of Revenue if it can be confined to the purchase of Tickets, and to persons of such opulence, as upon the abolition of the Lottery could not probably be restrained from squandering their money in another way, from which the State would derive no benefit.
The Lottery, on the plan upon which it is at present conducted, has not yet ceased to be an evil of the utmost magnitude, and perhaps one of the greatest nurseries of crimes that ever existed in any country.—At the close of the English Lottery drawn in 1796, the Civil Power was trampled upon and put to defiance in a most alarming and shameful manner, disgraceful to the Police of the Metropolis. The means used for this purpose have been already fully detailed; ante [p. 156] in the note.
The profits of these Cheats and Swindlers were said to be immense beyond all former example, during the Lottery drawn in the spring both of 1796 and 1797; and of course, the Poor were never in a greater degree plundered.
In calculating the chances upon the whole numbers in the wheels, and the premiums which are paid, there is generally about 33 1-3d per cent. in favour of the Lottery Insurers; but when it is considered that the lower ranks, from not being able to recollect or comprehend high numbers, always fix on low ones, the chance in favour of the insurer is greatly increased, and the deluded Poor are plundered, to an extent which really exceeds all calculation.
At no period is there ever so much occasion for the exertions of the Magistracy, as during the drawing of the English and Irish Lotteries; but it is to be feared, that even by this energy, opposed as it always undoubtedly will be, by a System as well of corruption as of force unexampled in former times, no proper check can be given, until by new Legislative regulations, some more effectual remedy is applied.
The following expedients with the assistance of a superintending, energetic, and well-regulated Police, it is to be hoped, might be the means of greatly abridging this enormous evil, and of securing to Government the same annual revenue, which is at present obtained, or nearly so.
"1. That the numbers of the Tickets to be placed in the Lottery Wheels shall not be running numbers, as heretofore used; but shall be intermediate and broken; thereby preventing insurances from being made on specific numbers, from the impossibility of its being known, to any but the holders of tickets, or the Commissioners, what particular ticket at anytime remains in the wheel.
"2. That all persons taking out licences to sell Lottery Tickets, shall (instead of the bond with two sureties for one thousand pounds, now entered into under the act of the 22d George 3. cap. 47,) enter into a bond, with two sureties also, for £.50,000—which sum shall be forfeited, on due proof that any person, so licensed, shall have been, directly or indirectly, concerned in taking insurances contrary to law; or in setting up, or being connected in the profit or loss arising from any illegal insurance-office: or in employing itinerant Clerks, to take insurances on account of persons so licensed.
"3. That besides the above-mentioned bond, all licensed Lottery Office Keepers shall, previous to the drawing of each Lottery, make oath before a Magistrate, that they will not, in the course of the ensuing Lottery, be concerned, either directly or indirectly, in setting up any illegal offices for the sale of tickets, or insurance of numbers, contrary to law: Which affidavit shall be recorded, and a certificate thereof shall be indorsed on the licence without which it shall not be valid. And that the affidavit may be produced in evidence, against persons convicted of illegally insuring; who shall in that event be liable to the punishment attached to perjury, and of course, to the ignominy of the pillory and imprisonment.
"4. That all peace-officers, constables, headboroughs, or others, lawfully authorised to execute the warrants of Magistrates, who shall receive any gratuity, or sum of money from illegal Lottery Insurers, or from any person or persons, in consideration of any expected services in screening such offenders from detection or punishment, shall, on conviction, be rendered infamous, and incapable of ever serving any public office; and be punished by fines, imprisonment, or the pillory, as the Court, before whom the offence is tried, shall see proper.
"5. That all persons who shall be convicted of paying money on any contract for the benefit arising from the drawing of any Lottery Ticket, insured upon any contingency (not being in possession of the original ticket, or a legal share thereof) shall forfeit £.20 for every offence, to be levied by distress, &c.
"6. That an abstract of the penalties inflicted by law on persons insuring, or taking illegal insurances in the Lottery, shall be read every Sunday, in all churches, chapels, meeting-houses, and other places of public worship, during the drawing of the Irish and English Lotteries respectively; with a short exhortation, warning the people of the consequences of offending against the law: And that a copy of the same shall be pasted up in different parts of Guildhall, and constantly replaced during the drawing of the Lottery; and also at all the licensed Lottery Offices within the Metropolis.
"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 principal 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 circumstance they were enabled to tempt chiefly that class 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 shillings 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—