LOTTERY FEVER

Hokitika Guardian, 19 December 1931, Page 6

LOTTERY FEVER

GAMBLING IN NEW SOUTH WALES. AMAZING DEVELOPMENT. SYDNEY, December 9. Ever since it was begun a few months ago, the State lottery in New South Wales lias" been a success, but now the people seem to have gone lottery mad. Lotteries are now being subscribed at the rate of two a week, which means the sale of 200,000 tickets each seven days. Money continues to pour into the State from New Zealand as well as from other parts of Australia, and the overseas mail is ever increasing. Day after day long queues wait at the lottery office, despite the fact that for 3d extra, which i!j by way of commission to the agent, they can be purchased almost anywhere in the city and suburbs. All sorts of ruses are employed to get in ahead of the crowd, and the most common is to “borrow” a baby, and then appeal to the official at the door for preference. This worked very well for a while —until the official came to recognise that it was the same baby every time. Tile climax was reached when a white woman appeared with a black baby.

A number of unauthorised agents have been buying tickets in bulk and splitting them up into seven shares, selling each share at a price which gave them a profit of 1/9 a ticket. One of these agents was prosecuted under the Gaming Act, but the Supreme Court has since ruled that he was within his rights in disposing of his own property, be it lottery ticket or anything else, in whatever way he liked. This has given a great fillip to the trade in lottery tickets, and no wonder some concern is felt among those who have the interests of the people at heart. For instance, it has been revealed that a schoolboy sold one of tho shares in such a way as to yield him a profit of 3d. Nothing will stop people from gambliifg if they so desire, but it seems that only disastrous results can follow if the sale of lottery tickets takes place in the school grounds.

Hotels, ambulances, butchers, tailors, hospitals, and bridge parties are using lottery tickets, with the lure of “£SOOO for nothing” in order to advertise and increase their trade. Charity affairs which used to offer small prizes such as a fountain pen by way of an inducement to people to enter ihto a raffle, now offer lottery tickets instead, and find that the public likes this better. One hotelkeeper in the city will sell a ticket at a discount provided you buy a glass of beer from him. Some butchers give away a number with each parcel of meat, and on Saturday give to the holder of the lucky numbers lottery tickets. The ambulances are conducting lottery drives—actually, raffles with lottery tickets as the prizes. A certain soap manufacturer announces that inside every tenth bar lie places a lottery ticket. Other traders offer lottery tickets at half-price providing you spend, say, £l. Altogether it seems as though the whole position is getting out of hand, and that the Government will sooner or later have to devise some restrictive legislation. Ad the profit's of the lottery amount to about £12.000 weekly, Mr Lang is not likely to rush matters.