Art Unions

Press, Volume C, Issue 29504, 4 May 1961, Page 14

Art Unions

The Government has embarked on something of a gamble with the New Zealand art unions. The object of trebling the prize money is to compete with overseas sweepstakes. But New Zealanders have not preferred overseas sweepstakes to their own lotteries merely because overseas sweepstakes have offered bigger prizes. The attraction is the restriction of entries to a specified number so that persons taking tickets know, if not the precise odds against their winning a prize, at least that the odds are regulated. Purchasers of tickets in New Zealand art unions have no such assurance; no limit is set on the number of tickets sold. These conditions have produced for the past few years operating figures something like this: commissions to sellers and agents, 15 per cent of gross sales; expenses, 10 per cent; lottery duty, 10 per cent; net profit 36| per cent; prizes, W per cent It is not surprising that New Zealanders have preferred overseas sweepstakes offering incomparably better odds, As the prize money is to be trebled (from £lO,OOO to £30,000) and the ticket cost only doubled (from 2s 6d to ss), the terms of the new art unions carry a superficial promise to return to ticket-holders a larger proportion of the money invested. But there can be no assurance of this while an unlimited number of tickets f s sold. Apparently the Government intends to run “ three or four ” lotteries under these terms before judging whether it will be expedient to change the system and limit ‘he number of tickets. It seems unlikely that merely

increasing the prize money of New Zealand art unions will cause people accustomed to sending money overseas to change their ways; and (from the viewpoint of charities that benefit from art union profits) there is a danger that increasing the ticket price of the New Zealand art union from the traditional 2s 6d to a price nearer that of the overseas sweepstakes will be to the advantage of the overseas sweepstakes. The public’s reaction to the Government’s experiment will be awaited with interest.