§ 4. On Lotteries

320. A lottery is an aleatory contract by which, upon payment of a certain price, a right is acquired to obtain some prize if the lot is favorable.

A lottery is not illicit of itself, because buying the hope of gain is not prohibited. The principal conditions for a lottery to be lawful are: 1. that no fraud be employed in drawing the tickets or in paying the prize; 2. that ordinarily there be a fair proportion between the price paid and the hope of obtaining the prize. I say ordinarily, however, because several lotteries are instituted for promoting a good work, e.g., for building a church; in this case the lottery is nothing other than an occasion of giving alms with a slight hope of gaining something. Since the purchasers of these lots know this, no injury is done.

Since a lottery gives occasion to many abuses, e.g., by exciting a vain hope of becoming rich quickly and without labor and by occasioning excessive expenditures for the purchase of lots, civil laws in several regions consequently impede or at least limit the use of lotteries. These laws indeed are prudent; nevertheless, they are commonly considered as merely penal laws, not inducing an obligation, at least a direct one, in conscience, nor obliging to restitution in case of transgression.