The Association for Legalizing American Lotteries

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The Association for Legalizing American Lotteries was an illegal lottery disguised as an organization in 1936.

Time (magazine) wrote on Monday, April 20, 1936:

One way to get around the U. S. laws against lotteries is to think up a high-sounding name for an organization, enroll "members" at so much per head, hold a "contest" in which they may win large cash prizes. Last week the Grand National Treasure Hunt, which sells $1 "applications for membership" in the Association for Legalizing American Lotteries, was just ending its third such contest when the Post Office Department clapped a fraud order on the scheme, barred the mails to its promoters. ... [Another lottery the] National Conference on Legalizing Lotteries, Inc., has for its president Mrs. Oliver Harriman. Mrs. Harriman, a onetime Louisville belle named Grace Carley, married a broker cousin of the late Railroader Edward H. Harriman 45 years ago, has since been a prominent Manhattan socialite. A large, determined, forthright lady, Mrs. Harriman thinks it is a shame that millions of U. S. dollars are exported for the Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes and other foreign lotteries when they might be kept at home. People who agree with her to the extent of paying $1 to join her Conference automatically become eligible to enter a "Selection Sweepstakes." Here they are called upon to display their skill and judgment by arranging in order of desirability a list of 16 ways the Government could spend the money it might raise by legalizing lotteries. For best arrangement: $20,000. Other prizes total $40,000. ... Mrs. Harriman's organization was specifically cited by the Post Office Department only for conducting a lottery. The other two organizations were cited not only for conducting lotteries but for obtaining money under fraudulent pretenses. Golden Stakes, run by Golden Stakes Advertising Corp., does not pretend to any motive of social benefit. Golden Stakes tickets, at $1 each, entitle their holders to see a flying circus at Fitzmaurice Flying Field at Massapequa Park, L. I. Ticket-holders may also enter a contest which consists of picking titles for six cartoons from the names of 25 songs listed under each. First prize: $60,000. Other prizes amount to $90,000. The organization's vice president and counsel, at $100 per week, is Alfred Emanuel Smith Jr., 35. ... The Association for Legalizing American Lotteries, on which the Post Office took its first and firmest action, is headed by Major Thomas George Lanphier, Sr., U.S.A., retired. Of proceeds from the sale of numbered applications for membership in the Association. Grand National Treasure Hunt keeps 50% for expenses and 25% "for itself." Harder to win than Golden Stakes, Grand National Treasure Hunt involves eight cartoons, lists 30 song titles under each one. Winners, picked by a jury of "artists and song experts," get prizes totaling $100,000. ^[1]

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