Lottery Prize Money To Rise

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30143, 29 May 1963, Page 14

Lottery Prize Money To Rise

(From Our Own Reporter)

WELLINGTON, May 28. Prize money in each draw of the Golden Kiwi lottery will be increased by £3OOO to £33,000, according to Government sources.

There will not be a reduction in the number of tickets sold in each consults* tion—2so,ooo —but the number of prizes will be increased from 1800 to 2010.

There will be no variation of the first prize of £12,000 but the second prize will be increased from £2OOO to £3OOO, the third prize from £lOOO to £l5OO and the fourth prize from £750 to £looo* Thes. increases account for £1750 of the £3O/10 increase and it is believed that the remaining £1250 will be 210 additional prizes in the lower denominations. An official announcement of the details of the bigger and more numerous prizes will be made by the Minister of Internal Affairs (Sir Leon Gotz) at the drawing of the 100th Golden Kiwi on Thursday morning. He and Lady Gotz will appear before television cameras in drawing the first and second prizes of the 100th consultation.

The bigger lottery has the approval of the Cabinet and the Government caucus. The effort to make the local consultation more attractive to investors was prompted by the continuing and substantial competition from Tattersail’s Melbourne lottery where a smaller number of tickets in each draw gives ticket-holders a mathe-

matically better chance of winning a prize. It is believed that Sir Leon Gotz and his advisers considered a proposal to reduce the number of tickets sold in the Golden Kiwi but rejected it on the grounds that as administration charges remain constant at about '£17,000 a lottery, the resulting greater frequency of draws would merely increase the annual administration costs at the expense of bigger prizes and profits for distribution. Sir Leon Gotz Is said to be confident that the bigger and more numerous prizes will effectively stimulate sales which have been slowing down over the last few months.