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The Gaming Table by Andrew Steinmetz
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CHAPTER
XIII. page 3
To increase the revenues of the Church, the Pope also was induced
to establish a lottery at Rome; the inhabitants of which place
became so fond of this species of gambling, that they often
deprived themselves and their families of the necessaries of
life, that they might have money to lay out in this speculation.
The French borrowed the idea from the Italians. In the year
1520, under Francis I., lotteries were permitted by edict under
the name of _Blanques_, from the Italian _bianca carta_, `white
tickets,'-- because all the losing tickets were considered
_BLANKS;_--hence the introduction of the word into common talk,
with a similar meaning. From the year 1539 the state derived a
revenue from the lotteries, although from 1563 to 1609 the French
parliament repeatedly endeavoured to suppress them as social
evils.
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