Article — Noldin, Summa of Moral Theology
Article Third. On Lottery
625. Nature. Lottery is a contract by which, when a certain price has been paid, a right is acquired of obtaining the thing exposed if the drawing of lots has favored.
a. Lottery is an aleatory contract, because one part of the contracting parties acquires nothing except the hope of obtaining by lot the thing exposed. Lottery differs from wagering in this, that wagering supposes disagreement of opinions among the contracting parties; but it differs from game in this, that game requires an occupation whose event is uncertain, but lottery requires the drawing of lots of an uncertain event.
b. By force of the contract there is immediately acquired the hope of obtaining by lot the thing exposed. This hope grows or decreases according to the smaller or greater number of those drawing lots. The same hope involves a conditioned right to the thing exposed, which, when the favorable drawing has been made, passes into an absolute right.
c. Since lottery gives occasion to many abuses, in most kingdoms it is prohibited by civil law, unless permission to institute the lottery has been obtained from competent authority.
626. For the justice of lottery there is required: a. Equality between what is given and what is accepted; and this equality is present when the price of the lot is worth as much as the hope of acquiring the thing exposed by lot is worth. To estimate the value of this hope it must be noted that it is so much greater, the greater the thing exposed is and the greater the number of those drawing lots is.
If it happens that in a lottery the price of the lot is greater than the hope of acquiring the thing exposed, and those who are about to draw lots, who know this, nevertheless freely buy lots for themselves, the buyers are considered to give the excess; this especially has place when the lottery is instituted for the utility of a pious cause.
b. There are those who for the justice of lottery also require this condition, that the profit received from the lottery be morally equal to the profit received by means of the same money from trade.1 But others rightly teach that for the justice of this contract equality between the hope of gain and the price paid, and equality of danger among the participants, is sufficient.2
1 Gury I, n. 943; Lehmkuhl I, n. 1137.
2 Ballerini-Palmieri III, n. 926; Genicot I, n. 663.