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43 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, January 27, 2005 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Opportunities Moving to Southern Oregon? MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 26, 2004 The general good of the people has long benefited from bets By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Caesar used them regularly to raise money for Roman escapades, just as the founders of Harvard and Princeton relied on them to create their ivory towers. Churches rose across Europe and North America thanks to them, and they’re even mentioned favorably in the Bible. They helped finance the first British attempt to colonize the New World, and later bought cannons to drive out the British. Thomas Jefferson used them to help finance the new American government, then later in life did it again to dispose of the bulk of his property to meet an $80,000 debt. They are, Jefferson said, "a salutary instrument and a tax ... laid on the willing only, that is to say, who can risk the price of a ticket without sensible injury, for the possibility of a high prize." For thousands of years, cultures worldwide have used lotteries and other games of chance as a way to finance projects deemed in the public good. Advertisement From raising money to fight fire or famine in 17th century Jamestown, Va., to improving Oregon’s coastal salmon habitat today, communities have relied on the tandem of the get-rich-quick chance for some while raising even more capital for the whole as an acceptable form of social benevolence. Heck, they sure beat taxes. "Lotteries are voluntary, and that’s the key," says David Gale, executive director of the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries, a nonprofit group representing 47 organizations on the continent. "This whole concept has been around for centuries," Gale says. "You can either tax the public for the general good, or you can come up with something like a lottery." Raising money for public projects through tapping into people’s "I’ll betcha" approach has worked because it provides both sides with what they want. "Games of chance and that whole concept of ‘Oh, I’ll bet you’re wrong’ are part of everyday life," Gale says. "It’s part of people’s conversation." The Hun Dynasty did it in 100 B.C. They created Keno — a game now popular in Oregon — to provide financing for the Great Wall of China. The first recorded European lottery was in 1446 when the widow of Flemish painter Jan Van Eyck held a raffle to dispose of his remaining paintings. Lotteries thrived during the 1500s in Europe, where the term lottery likely stems from the Italian "lotto," meaning destiny or fate. As fate would have it, governments started taking over lotteries. In 1759, King Louis XV founded a French lottery to reduce the state’s debt, and he outlawed all other lotteries for the first lottery monopoly. Lotteries funded the Colonial Army in America’s infancy and were very active after the adoption of the U.S. Constitution into the 1820s, when repeated corruption in private lotteries began to surface. Many awarded fewer prizes than advertised or no prizes at all. New York became the first state to outlaw lotteries in 1824. Across the country, lotteries dropped like loser tickets until the U.S. Supreme Court effectively banned the last lottery in Louisiana. Their survival, however, remained in places like Canada, Australia and Ireland. New Hampshire brought lotteries back to America in 1964 with the "sweepstakes" tied to horse races to avoid federal anti-lottery laws. New York followed in 1967, and New Jersey started a lottery in 1970. As state governments absorbed lotteries, and their profits, America’s confidence in their legitimacy also grew. "Government really added the credibility to the games so they could be legal again," Gale says. In 1984, Oregon weighed in with its own lottery, then added its controversial "Sports Action" game that takes bets on National Football League games. America’s taste for lotteries is growing nationally, and so grow the games. The latest trend, Gale says, is multi-state mega-jackpot lotteries like Powerball and Mega-millions. "Those things are hot now and the reason is, simply, the money," Gale says. Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. 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