SWEEPSTAKE TICKETS

Taranaki Daily News, 16 January 1933, Page 9

SWEEPSTAKE TICKETS

SEIZURE OF LETTERS.

BRIIISH POST OFFICE TASK.

Remarkable figures relating to the seizure of Irish sweepstakes tickets and money, and to the revenue derived by the post office from competitions, were given by -Sir Evelyn Murray, secretary •of the General Post Office, when giving, evidence ■ before the Lotteries Commission in London. Here are some of his statements:— 250,000 letters, containing circulars relating to foreign State lotteries, and 100,000 relating to Irish sweeps, were seized last year. Letters detained in connection with Irish- sweeps • numbered 117,532, and ‘the money returned amounted to £123,756. . Sir Evelyn said that there was no prohibition of the transmission of lot•tery correspondence through the post in the Post Office Act or in the statutory regulations governing postal services. The Postmaster-General, however, considered -himself bound to detain any packet observed to be passing through the post relating to undertakings of an illegal character. In the case of the lotteries promoted in the Irish Free State, the names, and addresses of the promoters and agents were reported to the Home Secretary as they came to light, and warrants, were issued for the opening and detention of letters so addressed.

Letters containing remittances were returned direct to the senders, unless the amount of the remittance were such as to suggest that the sender. was acting 'as an agent for the sale of tickets on a . considerable scale. In that event, the letter was sent to the Home Office for such action as might be thought necessary. Letters relating to a lottery, but not containing remittances, were detained by the Post Office. Sir Evelyn then gave the figures quoted above, and addded: “It will be apparent that an enormous amount of work is involved in the stoppage of a minute proportion of the contributions from this country to the sweepstakes, and that the intervention of the post office is quite ineffective. The decline discernible in the number of letters stopped is probably an indication that the check on lotteries imposed through the agency of the post office has merely resulted, in the divergence of subscribers to other channels.” . Sir Evelyn said it was estimated that orders to the value of about £1,200,000 Yvere used in connection with Irish sweepstakes for the year 1931-32, as against a total of about £721,500 for the year. 1930-31.