WORLD’S BIGGEST LOTTERY

Manawatu Times, Volume 64, Issue 174, 26 July 1939, Page 12

WORLD’S BIGGEST LOTTERY

Huge Profits from Irish Sweepstakes

TRELAND’S verdant countryside is almost as devoid of natural gold as it is of snakes. But what need has the Emerald Isle of the richest gold mine when it has the Irish sweepstakes, states an overseas exchange.

Certain it is that the luckiest Bendigo mine owner w'ould exchange all his mining interests for a small share in the greatest and most successful lottery of all times. It is a bonanza that has yielded —largely at the expense of Americans —hundreds of thousands of pounds for Irish hospitals and the Irish Government, and to its promoters, fortunes of staggering proportions. Since the inauguration of the Irish Sweepstakes in 1930, £74,000,000 worth of tickets have been sold —half in the United States—£44.6oo,ooo has been paid out in prize money and £13,400.000 has been handed over to the Irish Hospitals Trust. The money made available to the hospitals has been spent with open-handed liberality, but despite this, there is a balance unexpended amounting to approximately £7,000,000, which continues to grow prodigiously. One result has been that Ireland is to-day blessed with bigger, better and more hospitals than the most optimistic health worker could have dreamed possible a decade ago, and as the revenue from successive sweeps pours in to the Trust every four months, more and still more hospitals are being built. For large urban populations, medical science stipulates that there should be five hospital beds per 1000 of the population. Dublin and Cork are Ireland's only large urban centres, and, therefore, the proportion of beds to population could well be modified below five the 1000 people. Dublin County Borough has 6.9 beds per 1000 population, and Cork County Borough 11 beds per 1000. Including the medical and nursing services provided in addition to the hospital facilities, Ireland has a ratio of 10.8 beds per 1000.

Appropriately enough, the world’s biggest and most successful lottery was born of the mind of a bookmaker—Mr. Dick Duggan, who. ironically, was to die of cancer in 1935. It is reported that on the race track one day while Duggan was pursuing his culbng, a prominent doctor-friend, told him that a certain hospital in which he was interested w f ould have to close unless it could raise £4OOO.

“Faith, I'll raise £20,000 for you if r ou can get me permission to run a

sweepstake,” Duggan is reputed to hav# replied.

The idea apparently appealed to the doctor, for soon afterward? Mr. Joe McGrath, formerly Minister of Commerce and later of Labour under Mr. Cosgrave. had been introduced, and a plan of campaign drawn up. It was arranged that Duggan should arrange the finance, and McGrath secure Government sanction for a sweepstakes. Neither seemed to encounter much difficulty. Sidney Freeman, partner in the famous English bookmaking firm of Douglas Stuart Ltd., needed little encouragement to furnish the capital. But perhaps the greatest surprise of the whole undertaking was McGrath's success in persuading Ireland’s principal political antagonists—Messrs. Gosgrave and De Valera—to agree on the wisdom of the move. The passage of the measure followed as a matter of course.

It was stipulated that the operating expenses of the Irish Sw’eepstakes should not exceed 30 per cent, of the receipts; that the promotors should receive a maximum of 7 per cent as their share, and that the investors should receive 60 per cent, of the contributions back in prizes. Although it was laid down that no document connected with the lottery was to indicate that it was being conducted under Government patronage, the Government collects stamp tax on the sale of ticketi and the balance of the revenue goes to the Hospitals Trust. Sidney Freeman, who financed the enterprise in 1930, gave his share to Captain Spencer Freeman, a brother, who is to-day the active operator of the sweepstakes, although McGrath has the title of managing director. But Sidney Freeman is by no means a disinterested onlooker.

Every American holder of a winning ticket receives two cablegrams from Dublin. One notifies him of his good fortune and the other advises him to sell the ticket to Sidney Freeman if he purposes disposing of it. A grateful brother cables Sidney a list of the American winning ticket - holders, whereupon he canvasses each, offering to buy their tickets for the amount they would have to wager on their horses, at the prevailing odds, to w r in the capital prize of £30,000. It is stated that Sidney has made up to £IOO,OOO on one of his thrice-yearly trips to America, and has never returned to London with less than £30,000.