During
the year 1858 the receipts of the lottery (by which I suppose are meant
the net, not the gross receipts) are officially stated to have been
1,181,000 scudi, or about an eleventh of the whole Pontifical revenue. It
is true the expenses of the Lottery are charged amidst the state
expenditure for the year at 788,987 scudi, but then a large portion of
this expense is directly repaid to the Government, and the remainder is
paid to the lottery-holders, who all have to pay heavily for the
privilege of keeping a lottery-office, and who form also the most devoted
of the Papal adherents, more especially since the liberal party have set
their faces against the lottery. Common estimation too assigns a far
larger profit to the lotteries than Papal returns give it credit for,
and, I own that, from the system on which they are conducted, of which I
shall speak presently, I suspect the profit must be very much beyond the
sum mentioned; anyhow, this source of income is a very important one, and
is guarded jealously as a Government monopoly. Private gambling tables
of any kind are rigidly suppressed. If you want to gamble, you must
gamble at the tables and on the terms of the Government. The very sale
of foreign lottery-tickets is, I believe, forbidden. To this rule there
is one exception, and that is in favour of Tuscany.
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