Ticket Rush Expected

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30714, 1 April 1965, Page 1

Ticket Rush Expected

Tickets in the Mammoth lottery are expected to go quickly in Christchurch today.

Most agents think

they will have sold their quota within a few hours. Other agents will put only half their quota on sale today, and leave half until tomorrow. Bookings with agents have generally been heavy, but these have been given only to regular customers. Some agents say they have all their tickets already spoken for, but others have not taken any advance orders.

Some agents are concerned that their quotas will not cover their bookings. Bookings were asked for more than three months ago, and one agent had sold his full quota a month ago. One agent has restricted bookings to one for each person. He said the sale of tickets at increased prices, after the lottery had closed, was common.

One agent predicted that

unless customers had a regular supplier, they would have difficulty in obtaining tickets.

Some sellers said the whole sale was getting out of hand, and suggestions for improving the system varied.

A number of agents thought more frequent lotteries would solve the problem, but others expressed fear of the consequences of taking £250,000 out of circulation regularly. Some agents thought that too frequent Mammoth lotteries would decrease sales in the smaller 5s lottery, but others thought it would have little or no effect on the smaller one.

It was also suggested there should be one lottery for the North Island and one for the South Island, a smaller lottery with cheaper tickets and smaller prizes, or the selling of two successive lotteries at the same time.

One agent said each prospective buyer of a ticket should apply to the organisers, who should post the ticket to him.