Careless Lottery Prize- Winners

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31028, 6 April 1966, Page 3

Careless Lottery Prize- Winners

(N.Z. Press Association) WELLINGTON. April 5. Of the 2886 ticketholders who wo n prizes in today’s £135,000 Mammoth lottery, about 1000 of them will not claim their money without prompting. Even after prompting and in cases where there is no address on the ticket butt this means extensive inquiries about £BOO will remain unpaid.

The carelessness of the public is well known to the staff of Hammond and McArthur, who organise the Government’s lotteries. In the financial year ended March 31 last year, from 49 lotteries drawn including one Mammoth, there w T as £37,865

i unclaimed—an average of I £773 a lottery. In the financial year just ended there were eight Mami moths so the total unclaimed i prize money will probably be I higher. I One reason why so many j ticket-holders do not claim ; immediately, according to the j organisers, is that they put i their addresses on the butts ! and do not bother to check the advertised results. They trust the lottery office to get in touch with them if they win. But complications arise when there is no address on the butt. The organisers’ staff then have to use electoral rolls, telephone directories. and neighbourhood inquiries like “stab-in-the-dark” letters to boarding [ houses. . Mr N. McArthur has a thick file of letters of thanks from winners his office has located. Many express astonishment at the trouble taken to locate them A common anol ogy for causing this trouble is [that they were sick at the time.

Many writers are obviously elderly. Others explain that they were out of town. The advice of the organisers is to put an address on the butt anonymity would still be preserved and a ticket-holder would be advised of any prizes won. The most successful person j in preserving anonymity is “Gunner”, of Seatoun, who is the only Mammoth £60,000 winner still to remain undisclosed. When he collected his ; cheque personally from Mr McArthur he asked his advice. and Mr McArthur said if it were he, he would keep quiet about it. “I get criticised from Australian lottery organisers for this attitude,” he said. “They think I miss out on opportunities for better publicity for the lotteries. But I think in the end it is better publicity to maintain the right to anonymity.” The Golden Kiwi 'lottery started in December, 1961. I and there have been 244

i drawn so far. With 469.440 prizes, worth £7,752,000. Sales have been £15,250,000, and I Government taxation £1,525,000. The Mammoths began in July, 1964. and there have been 10 with 28,860 prizes worth £1.350.000 Sales have been £2,500,000, and tax £250 000. The net profits of the lotteries are allocated by the Lottery Profits Board to distribution committees on the basis of the needs of these committees The committees, and the amounts they received in the 1965 financial year, are: welfare of aged persons, £135.276; social welfare and amenities. £200.000: recreation and youth activities. £369.700: scientific research. £BlB 420 for five years to 1968: medical research. £608.151 for five years to 1968. The Minister of Internal Affairs also received £26,069 [for previously committed disitribution, and the Queen I Elizabeth II Arts Council re■ceived £lOO,OOO.