The purchaser or receiver of any lottery ticket or certificate in the nature of a lottery ticket, or share in either, not authorized by the Rhode Island state police whether it shall have been paid for in money, or however received, even though by way of gift, for the purpose of enabling the seller or giver to dispose of any article or piece of property, real, personal, or mixed, shall recover back the amount paid by him or her, or the value at which, according to the proof, the ticket or certificate may be reckoned in the transaction, as the case may be, from the person from whom the ticket or policy was purchased or received, in an action of the case for money had and received.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-19-4