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THE CHAIRMAN: Gentlemen, if we can come

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to order, please. This is a hearing by the Committee on

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State Finance and Taxation of the Maryland Constitutional

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Convention Commission.

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We are here today to discuss Article 3,

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Section 36 of the Maryland Constitution, which provides

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as follows: No lottery grant shall ever hereafter be

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authorized by the General Assembly.

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This particular provision of the Constitution

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found its way into our basic law in the Constitution of

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1851 and has reinained in its present form unchanged through

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the successive drafts of 1864 and 1867. The anti-lottery

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provision has a rather interesting history but we are

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not going to take our time this afternoon to go into all

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of it. Suffice it to say that one time in this state

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the lottery was rather well known and often used method

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of raising revenue. It was taken out of the law in 1851

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because it Was felt that there were various problems that

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were caused by the existence of a lottery which the state

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would be better served not to have to face.

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The issue here today is whether or not this