18 U.S.C. § 1301
Section 1301 · Importing or transporting lottery tickets
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 41 court decisions — leading case Greater New Orleans Broadcasting Association Incs v. United States (1999)
Most recently applied in Hatfield v. Sessions (April 2018)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whoever brings into the United States for the purpose of disposing of the same, or knowingly deposits with any express company or other common carrier for carriage, or carries in interstate or foreign commerce any 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, or any advertisement of, or list of the prizes drawn or awarded by means of, any such lottery, gift, enterprise, or similar scheme; or, being engaged in the business of procuring for a person in 1 State such a ticket, chance, share, or interest in a lottery, gift, enterprise or similar scheme conducted by another State (unless that business is permitted under an agreement between the States in question or appropriate authorities of those States), knowingly transmits in interstate or foreign commerce information to be used for the purpose of procuring such a ticket, chance, share, or interest; or knowingly takes or receives any such paper, certificate, instrument, advertisement, or list so brought, deposited, or transported, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or both.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Historical and Revision Notes
Based on title 18, U.S.C., 1940 ed., §387 (Mar. 4, 1909, ch. 321, §237, 35 Stat. 1136).
Reference to persons causing or procuring was omitted as unnecessary in view of definition of “principal” in section 2 of this title.
Words “in interstate or foreign commerce” were substituted for involved enumeration of places, thus permitting section to be condensed and simplified without change of meaning. See definitive section 10 of this title.
The rewritten punishment provision is in lieu of the following: “for the first offense, be fined not more than $1,000 or imprisoned not more than two years, or both; and for any subsequent offense shall be imprisoned not more than two years”. There seems no point in fixing a punishment for a second offense less than that for the first offense.
Minor changes were made in phraseology.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $1,000” and inserted “or, being engaged in the business of procuring for a person in 1 State such a ticket, chance, share, or interest in a lottery, gift, enterprise or similar scheme conducted by another State (unless that business is permitted under an agreement between the States in question or appropriate authorities of those States), knowingly transmits in interstate or foreign commerce information to be used for the purpose of procuring such a ticket, chance, share, or interest;” after “scheme;”.
Short Title of 1988 Amendment
Pub. L. 100–625, §1, Nov. 7, 1988, 102 Stat. 3205, provided that: “This Act [amending sections 1304 and 1307 of this title and section 3005 of Title 39, Postal Service, and enacting provisions set out as notes under sections 1304 and 1307 of this title] may be cited as the ‘Charity Games Advertising Clarification Act of 1988’.”
Canal Zone
Applicability of section to Canal Zone, see section 14 of this title.