More Light on Lotteries It is well that the sweepstakes
organized in the sacred name of charity should be examined froin time to time in the cold light of facts—or rather figures. Sir Herbert Samuel provided some material for that when he mentioned in the House of Commons on Friday that five Irish sweepstakes had been arranged between November, 1930, and March, 1932. Out of the suM of nearly £18,800,000 subscribed by the public the Irish hospitals had received 12,800,000, or just over twenty per cent. Expenses and commissions had amounted to actually £500,000 more than that, namely, £8,800:000, and £7,700,000 had gone in prizes. It is obvious enough from these figures that the hospitals are • being used largely as a cloak of respectability for a lotterY Which makes its appeal to the subscriber solely and 'siniply as a gigantic genie of chance: But when Sir Herbeii: Samuel mentions no less a sum than 18,800,000 as
devoted to expenses and commissions there is clearly room for a few questions by some interrogative member as to who it is that actually benefits under this head of the accounts, and on what scale.
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