Rudolf Sieghart, Geschichte und Statistik des Zalenlottos in Oesterreich (1898)

Rudolf Sieghart’s archival study argues that the Austrian number lottery survived not because its justice could be defended, but because a fiscal state learned to harness an unequal game to a deeply rooted popular desire. The Vorwort frames the book as both historical inquiry and practical intervention into the still-open “Lottofrage,” and states plainly what its evidence will demonstrate:

Die folgende Darstellung wird zeigen, wie tief der Spieltrieb wurzelt, welch festen Halt er in der österreichischen Bevölkerung hat.

English translation: The following account will show how deeply the impulse to gamble is rooted, what a firm foothold it has in the Austrian population.

This is the governing thesis. The work is arranged accordingly: first a conceptual and probabilistic definition of the Zalenlotto; then a chronological history from the first leases under Maria Theresa through state administration, patents, reforms, and abolition debates; finally an extensive statistical section that measures the social geography and fiscal yield of the institution before a brief normative conclusion.

In the opening chapter Sieghart’s central conceptual move is to translate a familiar game into political economy. The lotto is not simply chance; it is chance asymmetrically priced, legally protected, and administratively managed. A contemporary lottery official’s phrase becomes Sieghart’s compressed formula for the whole institution:

Sehr treffend sagte ein Lotteriesekretär in einem Berichte aus dem Jahre 1769, dass beim Lotto „aller Vorteil immer auf Seite des Unternehmers und alle Gefahr auf Seite des Spielers ruhe“.

English translation: Very aptly a lottery secretary said in a report from the year 1769 that in the lotto "all advantage rests always on the side of the operator and all risk on the side of the player."

Even the “Portata di Risico,” by which dangerous stakes could be blocked or reduced, exposes the moral paradox of the system:

Dadurch schützt sich die Lotterie gegen das Glück des Spielers, das anzurufen sie ihn fortwährend auffordert.

English translation: By this means the lottery protects itself against the player's luck, which it continually invites him to invoke.

The historical chapters show how this unequal game became a state revenue form. Sieghart places the Austrian introduction of 1751 within mercantilist policy: the aim was to prevent Austrian money from flowing into foreign lotteries. The slogan of the age is stated sharply:

Das Geld im Lande zu erhalten war der ewige Kehrreim aller merkantilistischen Theorien; es gibt fast kein wichtiges wirtschaftliches Aktenstück aus jener Zeit, das diesen Satz nicht mit der gläubigen Verehrung eines Dogmas wiederholte.

English translation: To keep money within the country was the eternal refrain of all mercantilist theories; there is scarcely a single important economic document from that time that did not repeat this maxim with the devout reverence of a dogma.

Yet this defensive rationale quickly fused with revenue hunger. The legal form was monopoly: the state occupied the institution as a regal right, then leased it to entrepreneurs such as Cataldi and Baratta. By Joseph II’s direct state administration in 1787, the private lease had become unnecessary; the state already captured most of the surplus.

From that point, Sieghart describes the lottery’s history as the history of failed abolition. Moral condemnation grew, but every attempt met the same obstacle: replacement revenue.

„So erhielt die finanzielle Not, die schon an der Wiege des Lottos gestanden war, es auch am Leben bis auf den heutigen Tag.“

English translation: "Thus the financial distress that had stood at the cradle of the lottery has also kept it alive down to the present day."

The Lottopatent of 1813 regularized documents and the “Wettkontrakt,” but did not abolish the predatory basis of the system. Collectors were indispensable and corrupting at once:

Die Lottokollektanten waren es, die sich dabei bereicherten und von ihnen sagte Rother in einem Berichte, sie müssten als die grössten Feinde und zugleich als die Grundfeste des Lottogefälls angesehen werden.

English translation: It was the lottery collectors who enriched themselves in the process, and of them Rother said in a report that they had to be regarded as the greatest enemies and at the same time the foundation of the lottery revenue.

The statistical section is the empirical core. From 1819 onward Sieghart tracks receipts, expenditures, surpluses, stakes, prizes, collections, and regional burdens. The data show long expansion, then decline only after administrative restrictions and the 1890/1893 taxation of winnings. Lower Austria, with Vienna, bears a disproportionate share. Seasonal tables lead to a stark social inference: play is not mainly financed by savings.

Es scheinen also nicht Ersparnisse zu sein, die regelmässig der Lottoleidenschaft geopfert werden; was vielmehr die Bevölkerung zumeist dem Lotto in die Arme treibt, sind Not und Entbehrung.

English translation: It seems, then, that it is not savings that are regularly sacrificed to the passion for the lottery; what drives the population most into the arms of the lottery is want and privation.

The conclusion is uncompromising in principle but cautious in policy. The lottery is an immoral and economically harmful tax on superstition, ignorance, and idleness, yet abrupt abolition would cost the state about 8.7 million gulden annually and might drive gambling underground.

„Ueber das Zalenlotto sind die Akten geschlossen.“

English translation: "On the number-lottery the files are closed."

Sieghart’s relevance lies in joining moral critique, archival history, and fiscal statistics. He makes gambling legible as a technology of public finance: a monopoly that manufactures revenue by institutionalizing unequal chance. On its continued existence he is categorical:

Man kann daher vom Zalenlotto kaum noch sprechen, ohne ihm eine Grabrede zu halten, und sein Fortbestand in der jetzigen Form ist keine Prinzipienfrage mehr, sondern eine Finanzfrage.

English translation: One can therefore hardly speak of the number-lottery any longer without delivering a funeral oration over it, and its continued existence in its present form is no longer a question of principle, but a question of finance.