SKILL OR CHANCE

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22226, 28 September 1935, Page 16

SKILL OR CHANCE

COMPETITION AT THEATRE DECISION RESERVED A sequel to a competition conducted at the Empress Theatre on August 19, when prizes were offered for the most accurate estimates of the number of people in the theatre at the evening l>erformance, was the appearance on summons in the Police Court yesterday of Joseph Patrick Moodabe and Gordon Htiia Scagar, charged with disposing, or promising to dispose, of a pair of blankets, a rug, crockery and other property, by lottery or chance. Sub-Inspector Fox prosecuted, defendants, who pleaded not guilty, being represented by Mr. Bartleet. Mr. Fox said Scagar was manager of the Empress Theatre, and Moodabe was managing director of the theatre, and other theatres in Auckland controlled by Amalgamated Theatres, Limited.

According to a newspaper advertisement published on August 19, Mr. Fox continued, every patron of the Empress Theatre on that evening had equal opportunity of winning one of a number of useful articles. Each natron, on entering the theatre, was handed a voting paper, or coupon, and after the interval- the managing director explained that prizes would be awarded to those most accurately estimating the attendance at the theatre. Three minutes were allowed for the calculation, after which the coujjons were collected, the patrons retaining butts. ' It was claimed that the calculation required skill, the official estimate being based on the number of admission tickets actually sold. "This was unfair to the competitors, as somo patrons might have left before the interval," said Mr. Fox. "It was impossible to make a correct calculation because of the lay-out of the theatre. Some persons were standing and others sitting, and there was no opportunity for the exercise of judgment." That the competition was a tost of skill and therefore not a lottery was submitted by Mr. Bnrtleet. He quoted the case of Hall v. Cox, in which it had boon ruled that a competition to estimate the number of births and deaths in London during a week was not a lottery. Counsel said there were m people in the Km press Theatre on the night in question, and one patron's calculation was within one of that figure, and three others had miscalculated by only three, four, and five respectively. Thirty others were within 27 of the correct figure. The magistrate, Mr. F. K. Hunt, reserved his decision.