LAW AND LOTTERIES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXI, Issue 21698, 13 January 1934, Page 15

LAW AND LOTTERIES

PUKE OF ATHOLL'S CASE SALE OF A CHANCE FINE OF £25 IMPOSED [FROM OUR' OWN- correspondent] LONDON, Nov. 30 Sir Rollo Graham-Campbell,, the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, has given his reserved decision in the summons against.'the Duke of Atholl for alleged contravention of the Lotteries Act, 1823. Tie said that, on the documents in the case, he could not doubt the Duke of Atholl was making an offer of the sale of a chance that there might bo prizes, and he imposed a fiue of £25 with 35 guineas costs. The summons accused the Duke of breaking the law by having sold to Arthur J. Chappell a ticket in a lottery called "The Duke of Atholl's Fund." / J Mr. Eustace Fulton, who appeared for the Director of Public PrpseCutions, submitted at the hearing that the Duke's scheme was a lottery, and the printing qf the word "cancelled" and the superimposition of other words on the back of the tickets, to the effect that the Duke should dispose of the proceeds in any way he thought fit, did not alter'the true nature of the transaction.

Mr.'Norman Birkott, K.C., who appeared for i the Duke of Atholl, submitted that there could not possibly bo any conviction under the Lotteries Act whero the salo of a ticket did not convey to the purchaser a contractual risht to a chance

Nature ol the Offer

The magistrate, in giving judgment, endorsed a statement by Mr. Fulton, that no one /' questioned the integrity of the Duke. "No one," he said, "doubts that he honestly believes he has found a way to yet out of the provisions of the Lotteries Act." The question he had to determine was a legal one. IJhe prosecution alleged that the ticket was a ticket in a lottery: the defence that it was a memento of a scheme which had been abandoned owing to official opposition. What was the real nature of the offer made by the Duke? Sir Hollo read the statement- in the newspaper which read that the Duke, asked for 10 shillings from a million people, but there was no -promise of any prizes, and the Duke could not say what he 'intended to do with the money. The Duke did. at a later date, give the details spoken of in the advertisement.

"My examination of this document satisfies me that he arbitrarily selected the persons who were to be beneficiaries under his scheme or persons who might properly be described as prizewinners. Jt is idle to suggest that some such scheme .of arbitrary distribution was hot in his mind from the beginning. It •is significant- that, the Duke did not go into the witness box to suggest that any other complexion coidd be put upon his i scheme. "On these documents'! cannot doubt that the Duke of Atholl was making an offer of the sale of a chance that there might be prizes, and that if there were prizes the acceptor of that offer might be given one of them. Selling a Lottery Ticket

"1 find as/a fact that the defendant made an- offer -of; sale*-. o£.a : chance-.that-there "might be. prizes, that if 'there were prizes the acceptor of that. offer might be given one, and I also find that Mr. Chappell by his letter accepted that offer —in other, words, the defendant admitted the offence of selling a ticket in a lottery." Mr. Fulton raised the question of expenses other than the ordinary expenses in the case, mentioning that it had been necessary for the prosecution to bring witnesses to prove statements which, at one stage, it was suggested might be questioned. The magistrate said he thought there ought to be 35 guineas costs. Sir Rollo said he would have no hesitation in stating a case if notice of. application were made in writing. Mr. Birkett said he would do so.