Housie rules clarified

Press, 9 May 1979, Page 7

Housie rules clarified

Housie evenings are still one ot the main fundraising projects for a wide variety of organisations. But there are some regulations for running the game which are not properly understood, according to the executive officer of the Gaming Section of the Department of Interna] Affairs (Mr R. Beatty).

Mr Beatty said there were just over 5800 “approved’’ organisations in New Zealand which had permission to hold housie games, either on a single occasion or regularly. “Any organisation wanting to hold housie, bingo, lotto, tombola, or any other name it is called, has to get permission

from the department, and then given the nearest police station details of the housie at least seven days before the event,” he said. Total prize-money for any one game could not exceed $4O, with 550 for a jackpot win. Housie could not be played on Christmas Day, Good Friday, or any Sunday, and' an approved organisation could hold only one session a week, unless special approval had been given by the department.

Second sessions were normally approved . only for beach resorts, and holiday camps during the holiday season, and for societies to entertain elderly, said Mr Beatty.

The district officer for the department in Christchurch (Mr L. W. Skerten) said he was not aware of any local problems with breaches of the regulations.

He said he only knew of the licensed operators, but doubted that- many organisations were running illegally. “We license, the games and the police enforce it,” he said. “There had been no prosecutions.” Mr Skerten said that any illegal operators would probably be reported by other organisations who did not like to see anyone getting an unfair advantage.