ARTICLE III: ON DRAWING OF LOTS, OR LOTTERY

Lottery is a contract by which several persons deposit something in common, so that they may have the right of drawing by lot the thing exhibited in the middle. Certain persons have the whole, certain persons a part, certain persons finally nothing.

1043. Questions. - Query 1° Whether lottery is a licit contract?

Resp. Affirmatively, provided the required conditions are present. The reason is that lottery can be considered as the purchase of an uncertain thing, or as a contract by which with money there is bought the right of drawing by lot and of acquiring that which will fall by lot. Moreover it is licit to buy an uncertain thing, just as to make a pact for the peril of some thing.

Query 2° What are the conditions required so that lottery be a contract licit in itself?

Resp. They are 1° that there be no fraud in drawing the tickets, nor in paying the prize which has fallen; 2° that the owner of the lottery not exceed in profit, nor morally gain more than if by another licit contract he expended his money, or distributed his merchandise. Yet the profit can be greater if the lottery has been instituted for a good work or public utility. - Thus commonly. Public lottery is never permitted in some States; in the rest it cannot be made without the license of civil power.