EXTRACTS from a Report to the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism in the city of New York.
"It is not possible to estimate the sum that may have been drawn from the people by lottery devices. Nor is it possible to estimate the number of poor people that have engaged in lottery gambling. We have been told, that more than two hundred of these deluded people have been seen early in the mornings at the lottery offices, pressing to know their fate. There might be seen the anxiety, the disappointment, and mortification, of unfortunate beings, who had lost their all!
"Thus we see that this demoralizing contagion has spread its destructive influence over the most indigent and ignorant of the community. The injurious system of lotteries opens a wide door to gambling, fraud and imposition; of which the speculating, dishonest, idle, profligate and crafty avail themselves, and deceive the innocent and ignorant.
"If we place this subject in a pecuniary view as it relates to the public funds, the mischievous effect is more obvious. From an estimate, made by a gentleman of accurate calculation, it appears, that the expense, or the amount drawn from the people, to raise by lottery the net sum of 30,000 dollars, amounts to $170,500, including the expense of the managers and their attendants, the clerks and attendants of the lottery offices, the expense of time lost by poor people, and the amount paid the proprietors of lottery offices. This enormous sum is paid for the collection of only 30,000 dollars. This is, therefore, not only the most expensive, but also the most demoralizing method that was ever devised to tax the people.
"Upon the whole view of the subject, your committee are decidedly of opinion, that lotteries are the most injurious kind of taxation, and the very worst species of Gambling. By their insidious and fascinating influence on the public mind, their baleful effect is extended, and their mischievous consequences are most felt by the indigent and ignorant, who are seduced, deceived, and cheated out of their money, when their families are often suffering for the necessaries of life. Their principles are vitiated by lotteries, they are deceived by vain and delusive expectation, and are led into habits of idleness and vice, which produce innumerable evils, and, ultimately, end in misery and pauperism."
LOTTERY COMBINATIONS.
The numbers on lottery tickets are formed by combinations of certain numbers previously agreed upon; as from 1 to 60, 1 to 75, 1 to 78, &c., &c.
Combination consists in taking a less number of things out of a greater, without any regard to the order in which they stand; no two combinations having the same quantities or numbers.
Problem.—To find the number of combinations which can be taken from any given number of things, all different from each other, taking a given number at a time.
Rule.—Take a series of numbers, the first term of which is equal to the number of things out of which the combinations are to be made, and decreasing by 1, till the number of terms is equal to the number of things to be taken at a time, and the product of all the terms.