Title 18 Section 1302 of the U.S. Postal &?

Question

please tell me exactly what this law is aboutTitle 18, Section 1302 and 1341, U.S. Postal and Lottery Laws or Title 18, Section 3005 in the U.S. Code, also in the Code of Federal Regulations, Volume 16, Sections 255 and 436,
because isn't it against the law to mail paper bill...?

Answer 1

Whoever knowingly deposits in the mail, or sends or delivers by mail:

Any letter, package, postal card, or circular concerning any lottery, gift enterprise, or similar scheme offering prizes dependent in whole or in part upon lot or chance;

Any lottery ticket or part thereof, or paper, certificate, or instrument purporting to be or to represent a ticket, chance, share, or interest in or dependent upon the event of a lottery, gift enterprise, or similar scheme offering prizes dependent in whole or in part upon lot or chance;

Any check, draft, bill, money, postal note, or money order, for the purchase of any ticket or part thereof, or of any share or chance in any such lottery, gift enterprise, or scheme;

Any newspaper, circular, pamphlet, or publication of any kind containing any advertisement of any lottery, gift enterprise, or scheme of any kind offering prizes dependent in whole or in part upon lot or chance, or containing any list of the prizes drawn or awarded by means of any such lottery, gift enterprise, or scheme, whether said list contains any part or all of such prizes;

Any article described in section 1953 of this title—
Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both; and for any subsequent offense shall be imprisoned not more than five years.


Lotteries are considered gambling and is forbidden to use the Postal Service to aid in the defrauding of the public.

Answer 2

18 USC 1302 appears to prohibit persons from sending, via mail, advertisments for lotteries, drawings, etc, where the chance of winnings is dependent on chance. It is intended, most likely, to help prevent the kind of postal/mail fraud you hear about every few years, where a person gets a "winning" lottery ticket or is promised a "winning" lottery ticket, if they pay a certain amount of sums for the "processing fee", etc... Often they are scammed out of thousands of dollars.

It also prohibits regular lotteries from doing business by mail, and would probably include state lotteries as well.

If you can make your questions clearer, perhaps I can give you a better answer.

Answer 3

You are asking for a legal opinion interpreting federal law. For non-lawyers, opining on this subject can be a crime, and for lawyers opining to you in this forum would probably be unethical and certainly unwise. You need to speak with a licensed attorney in your community.

Answer 4

sorry i don' know