R.C.Lahoti, J - (1.) Lottery is - `A chance for a prize for a price; a scheme for the distribution of a prize or prizes by lot or chance, the number and value of which is determined by the operator of lottery. Essential elements of a lottery are consideration, prize and chance and any scheme or device by which a person for a consideration is permitted to receive a prize or nothing as may be determined predominantly by chance', so defines the Black's Law Dictionary (6th Edn, p.947).
(2.) It goes on to say- "An unlawful gambling scheme in which (a) the players pay or agree to pay something of value for chances, represented and differentiated by numbers or by combinations of numbers or by some other media, one or more of which chances are to be designated the winning ones; and (b) the winning chances are to be determined by a drawing or by some other method based upon the element of chance; and (c) the holders of the winning chances are to receive something of value."
(3.) Lottery is a game of chance and hence like gambling it is a vice. Gambling is as old as the human ingenuity itself. So is the history of attempts at controlling if not preventing the evil. The expression `Betting and gambling' included and has always been understood to have included the conduct of lotteries. That is Entry No.34 of List-II of Seventh Schedule. However, lotteries organised by the Govt of India or the Govt of a State have been included in Entry No.40 of List-I of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.;