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This chapter contains sections titled: Klērōtēria: The Literary and Archaeological Evidence, The Lottery as Pioneer, Equalizer, and Guarantor for Social Order and Political Stability, The Lot as a Means of Civic Learning, Lottery as a Psychological Incentive for Citizen Cooperation, Appendix 16.A Catalogue of Extant klērōtēria and Related Material [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a lesson plan for students which teaches mathematical skills for measuring probabilities of a lottery.

A world of words, tail foremost, where Right – wrong – false – true – and foul – and fair As in a lottery-wheel are shook. In evidence given to the Parliamentary Committee on the Laws relating to Lotteries on 7 April 1808, the lottery-office entrepreneur and indefatigable self-publicist Thomas Bish declared that ‘Publicity to a Lottery is certainly necessary’. This chapter addresses that publicity, focusing most particularly upon a fascinating but little-known moment in English social history: the final draw of the English State Lottery, which was held in October 1826. It also pays much attention to Bish himself, as the figure most associated with the lottery in the minds of the contemporary English public. The proprietor of lottery offices at Cornhill, Charing Cross and in several provincial cities, Bish became a figure of some fame and notoriety in the early part of the nineteenth century on account of his striking lottery puffs. Here I examine his promotional methods, contextualise them against the background of the increasing middle-class disapproval of lotteries which led to their eventual abolition, and discuss the satirical response to the abolition of the lottery, to Thomas Bish, and to the final draw – the ‘Last, the downright Last’ as S. T. Coleridge called it, a body of work to which such important Romantic period figures as Charles Lamb and Thomas Hood made significant contributions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a discussion about online lottery. Lottery is considered as the first form of gambling to be made available on the Internet in 1996. The first Internet gaming site, www.interlotto.li, was introduced by the International Lottery in Liechtenstein Foundation (ILLF). Some of the currently available lottery games are Keno, HiLo and SMSLottome.

A chapter of the book "Clones, Cats, and Chemicals: Thinking Scientifically About Controversial Issues" is presented. It serves as a guide for teachers on discussing the lottery as a form of gambling. By 2000, thirty-six U.S. states have legalized the state lottery. The profitability of the state lottery is compared to that of private gambling. The impact of the growth of legalized gambling on the nature of gaming in the U.S. is also examined.

There can be no doubt that the era of the French wars marked as decisive a phase in debate about national morals as it did in debate about political rights or, for that matter, about the nature of human society itself. Prolonged experience of war, it may be argued, has a potentially dual impact on the perception and definition of morals. On the one hand, the economic and social confusions and uprootings which accompany war may act as a solvent on existing values and standards of behaviour. On the other hand, war may act as a generator of social cohesion. The stimulus of facing a clearly defined enemy may encourage, at the least, the expression of atavistic fears and passions – at the most, an attempt to impose disciplines of ideologically based conformity with virtually unlimited social reach. Dimensions of wartime moral anxiety English society during the French wars showed signs of reacting in both these ways. The war which began in February 1793 was an inescapable experience for a whole generation. Its impacts were both material and ideological. On the level of material life the demands which war placed on resources were unprecedented and the degree of mobilisation achieved has been compared with that of World War I. The most direct impact was that made on the lives of those one in six men who, at the height of mobilisation, were serving in the regular army, in the militia or in the various volunteer forces raised for home defence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various kinds of ‘private’ and ‘public’ forms of book production were commonly utilized to preserve experiences of travel. The compilation of manuscript volumes, which far exceeded the production of printed books, is of crucial importance in any consideration of the readership of travel literature between 1557 and 1695. Indeed, no first-hand significant account of travels in Europe by an Englishman reached print before 1600 despite the frequent publication in these years of translations of major works by foreigners (translation remained a key source for texts throughout the period). Some of these manuscripts were probably written as private reference manuals and some circulated only in manuscript. On some occasions conflicting accounts might be circulating simultaneously in manuscript and print. In print the choices available to an author or bookseller ranged from sensationalist single sheet ballads, hastily printed newsletters, crudely printed pamphlets, populist publications and handy pocket guides in slim octavo and duodecimo, to expensive and lavishly illustrated quartos and folios aimed at the wealthy individual purchaser or institutional libraries. Later, following the Restoration, accounts of individual journeys were usually published in folio. But from the mid-1570s there had been a large selection of guide books, including cheaply printed narratives, available to anyone travelling in Europe for education or pleasure as opposed to business. A small number of travel publications was financed by the authors themselves, like Coryate and, probably, Sir James Ware; by collaborative publishing as was the case for the editions of Hakluyt in the 1590s, or sponsored by a City Company with overseas trading interests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The production of printed maps and atlases in the British Isles has long been a specialized activity standing somewhat apart from the generality of book production. This has to a large extent been true ever since maps first began to appear as illustrations in London-printed books of the mid-sixteenth century. The reasons for this were primarily technical. Map publishing required skills in making and printing blocks or plates quite separate from those involved in the setting and printing of type. Map publishers were noticeably earlier than the book trade at large to adopt intaglio printing from engraved metal plates, a factor that from the beginning set them apart, for intaglio plates (unlike woodcuts which could be printed alongside ordinary letterpress) required a quite different type of printing press (the ‘rolling-press’) and, at least to some extent, specialized inks and papers. A further difference is that the trade in maps and atlases is inherently international, with maps requiring little in the way of translation. This led to extreme vulnerability to overseas competition, but also to extensive and in some ways atypical interrelationships between members of the domestic trade and their counterparts abroad. The map trade is itself difficult to define. Individual maps might be sold separately, either in single sheets or as several sheets joined to make a wall map for display. Maps might also appear as book illustrations or as part of an atlas (here very loosely defined as any production of which the maps form an essential feature). Many survive only as part of a composite ‘atlas factice’ of maps from different sources assembled or ‘published’ in non-standard form. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents an article on winning a 1926 Ford Model T automobile in a lottery. Experiences of several individuals with the Model T; Problems in getting the Model T started; Accident encountered while driving to Edinburg, Texas.

Investigates the management of a National Lottery in Great Britain using a highly parallel scalable computer system based on a transputer architecture. Structure of the National Lottery game; Details on the data volumes involved in the lottery application; Parts of the process architecture for the lottery; Discussion on mapping the process architecture onto a transputer network.

Introduction The decisive event in the financial history of The Netherlands during the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries is the transformation from fragmentation to unification. After the so-called Batavian Revolution of 1795 the provincial debts of the united provinces were amalgamated into one national debt. The first national budget was presented to an elected parliament. In 1806 a national taxation system was realised, by which the fiscal autonomy of the seven provinces was ended. Moreover, the charters of the West and East Indian Companies were not renewed after their expiration. Their tasks were handed over to a state department of colonial affairs. The local Bank of Amsterdam died a silent death in 1820 and a new national bank modelled on the example of the Bank of England was erected in 1814. In the meantime, the pound sterling had taken over the role of the depreciated Bank of Amsterdam guilder as the main international key currency at the turn of the century. London replaced Amsterdam as the main international financial centre (see chapter 3). Thus, the Dutch lead in the international financial and economic system definitely came to an end, the ancien regime federal republic became a modern unitary state, ready to embark on financial policy on a national scale. In the seventeenth century the Dutch Republic had been remarkable for the success of its financial system. In the beginning of the eighteenth century its debts were hardly any longer compatible with its small size. Owing to their central position in the international system, however, the Dutch could not back out silently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction In the early modern era, the system of public finance of the northern Netherlands constituted a most singular type among its neighbouring countries. This tiny nation, without large resources of its own, was extremely successful in raising sizable quantities of funds for public purposes, in particular for warfare. Various larger monarchies experienced enormous difficulties in making both ends meet. Powerful princes went bankrupt, but not this conglomeration of sovereign provinces. Distinguished ambassadors of foreign authorities reported home on how the Dutch managed their astonishingly high levels of public debt. Within this state, the commercial and financial strength of the province of Holland constituted the major backbone. In the course of the sixteenth century, Holland had developed a system of provincial public finance which enabled the ascent of a secured public debt against relatively low rates of interest. This so-called ‘financial revolution’ (Tracy 1985a, p. 3; Dickson 1967) acted as a most welcome safety-valve for unforeseen and exorbitant military expenses. The reverse side of the coin was an enormous incidence of taxation. Loans, after all, had to be serviced by duties that had to be paid by the populace. In 1595, a young English traveller by the name of Fynes Moryson noted the paradox of this burden: The Tributes, Taxes, and Customes, of all kinds imposed by mutuall consent – so great is the love of liberty or freedome – are very burthensome, and they willingly beare them, though for much lesse exactions imposed by the King of Spaine… they had the boldnesse to make warre against a Prince of such great power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The greatest opportunities for white-collar crime probably occurred during the promotion of new companies. British company law was the most permissive in all of Europe and gave promoters great latitude in their operations. The ease with which a limited, joint-stock company could be created was remarkable. Seven persons had only to take up one share each in a concern to achieve incorporation. They might have no real stake in the company, but they could sell its shares to the public, have themselves or their friends appointed directors, and trade on the firm's capital in the most reckless manner with no personal liability beyond their own small shareholding. In 1867, only ten years after the liberalization of company law, Parliamentary hearings were held to inquire into the alarming incidence of company fraud. Many witnesses complained that promoters were taking advantage of the law's leniency. The company promoter David Chadwick admitted “there are radical defects in the Act [Companies Act, 1862], and that too great facility is afforded to the promoters of companies who wish to palm off something unsound on the public.” The Master of the Rolls, Lord Romilly, was more blunt: In a great many cases which have come before me, I am satisfied that the company was formed for the purpose of being wound up, and that the original promoters had no other object than just to put a company on foot which they were satisfied could never be carried into any profitable execution, for the mere purpose of afterwards winding it up in the Court of Chancery.[...] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Just as the summoning of Parliament was occasional and intermittent, selections to the House of Commons were an unplanned part of a wider range of social and political choices made in local communities. Assembled together, members of Parliament acquired symbolic importance in uniting the King with his Lords and Commons. They also exercised legal and political functions and represented the community of the realm. They were part of an ongoing institution that was increasingly a part of royal government in the early modern era. Thus it is often assumed that members were individually suited to their collective responsibilities and that this was a result of the process by which they were selected. In fact, there is little that connects the selection process in the localities with the legislative process at Westminster. Parliamentary selections were part of a kind of social ecology in which elevations to titles and honors, appointments to the bench, the lieutenancy, or the assumption of corporate responsibility marked out the thriving species. They were subject to the inexorable laws of the life cycle and the land market – hostages alike to fortunes won and lost, ambitions grasped and dashed. Their determinants varied in place and time and conformed only to the everchanging patterns of local leadership and social differentiation. The normative process of parliamentary selection must be studied in this context of social standing and community service. Selection of members to Parliament could present the opportunity to honor natural leaders or could highlight ambiguities in the competition for local prestige. The moment of selection was the ever present uncertainty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Had the sixteenth century a Hogarth who wished to capture the spirit of an election contest, he could not have done better than to have been with pen and ink in York Castle yard on October 3, 1597. On the left-hand side of his sketch might have been the dominating castle, cut away at the bottom to reveal the archbishop of York and Sir John Saville in earnest conversation, Saville's face implacable, the archbishop's concerned. Near the top of the castle wall, at a window overlooking the yard, crowd the undersheriff and ten “indifferent gentlemen” all gazing at the scene below. The foreground would be occupied by a great swell of men, open-mouthed, some with arms upraised, crying out, “A Saville! A Fairfax!”; and others, “A Stanhope! A Hoby!” At the midground, and rising to the upper limits of the yard, intermingled with horses, dogs, porters carrying wares, and women with children at their skirts, are even larger groups of men, indistinguishable from those at the bottom but less animated. They are divided, one portion against the castle wall, the other, somewhat more numerous and amid greater numbers of onlookers and passers-by, on the hilly rise nearer the outer gate. On the right-hand side, out of proportion and as dominant as the castle on the left, the scene swells to the courtyard gate. There stand the undersheriff and a smaller number of the indifferent gentlemen, their poses and countenances now markedly agitated and in their hands sticks with knives poised over them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The martial feats of Caius Marcius earned him the appellation Coriolanus. When he returned to Rome after his greatest triumph his mother, Volumnia, exulted: “I have lived to see inherited my very wishes.… Only there's one thing wanting, which I doubt not but our Rome will cast upon thee.” This crowning accolade was selection as consul, a veneration of honor and merit reserved for the noblest Romans. The process, in Shakespeare's Rome, was one of nomination by the senate and approbation by the citizenry. The body of senators would meet to select a candidate to be presented to the people. Marcius's heroism against the Volscians concluded a career of gallantry that even the aged Cominius felt himself unable to describe. He was nobly born and bred, and his valor – “the chiefest virtue” – could not “in the world be singly counterpoised.” He was adopted by the senate unanimously in the belief that “he cannot but with measure fit the honors which we devise him.” It remained only for Coriolanus to present himself for the people's assent. This aspect of the selection process involved the symbolic humbling of the recipient of high honors. The nominee, in the “gown of humiliation,” perambulated the public squares requesting the voices of the citizens. It was the act of petition that was paramount – “the price is to ask it kindly.” In turn, the people demanded some show of the nominee's merit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A personal narrative is presented which explores the author's insights about taking chances for lottery.

Chapter 6 of the book "Posthumous Works of Thomas De Quincey," Volume II is presented. It provides information on the Gold Craze in California and Australia, and how reports on it gave romantic impressions on the public. The natural propensity of men to confide in their lottery and a comparison of the gold craze with lottery are discussed.

The section "Lotteries" of the book "Chance and Luck," by Richard A. Proctor is presented. It focuses on the immorality of lotteries and examines the price of lottery ticket by determining the value of each trial. It also explores the chances of winning the lottery and the possibility of losing the game. Moreover, it discusses the mathematical value of a single chance to win the game.

Chapter V of the book "THE TWO BROTHERS," by Honore de Balzac is presented. It focuses on the life of Philippe continued with his gambling, driven by the necessity of having money, plundered their household and took his brother's money. It narrates the conversation among Agathe, her brothers Philippe and Joseph. It cites the list of numbers written on a paper and the officials of the lottery.

A chapter of the book "Clones, Cats, and Chemicals: Thinking Scientifically About Controversial Issues" is presented. It examines the lottery as a form of gambling. Lotteries have been legalized in many U.S. states. These lotteries are under pressure to increase their revenue in order to support state budgets. Gambling may have many benefits, but it also creates problems, including a greater incidence of poverty.

The article presents a discussion about the psychology of gambling. It is noted that gambling is considered as a game for losers as the house always has an advantage over gamblers. A gambler may increase his winning chances by knowing what games to play and reducing house advantage. It is also asserted that there are higher chances of winning in the casino than the lottery or bingo.

A definition of the term "lottery" is presented. It consists of a finite number of alternatives of prizes A1…n and a chance mechanism in utility theory and decision analysis.

The Lottery, title story of a collection by Shirley Jackson, first issued in The New Yorker and published in the book in 1949. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An essay is presented on the misfortunes of a lottery buyer. It offers a situation where an apprentice to a linen-draper bought a lottery ticket and discovered that his number appeared in the public papers had conferred the great prize but missed the change due to misplaced ticket. It also notes that he was experimenting several fallacious method in the hope to gain fortune in the lottery but discovered that he had already lost money.