New York Lottery Royce

The Rolls Royce of Lotteries

Meanwhile, Warwick KiddIe was still running his Golden Kiwi lotteries, one every seven to ten days, and these would continue for the next five years, although at a declining rate. But it was a time of growing frustration. For years, KiddIe had been unsuccessfully trying to persuade the department and successive ministers to introduce 'life-style' lotteries (in which installments of the prize money were paid out to winners each year), 'object' New York Lottery, instant-prize lotteries and Lotto. Gathering evidence at International Lottery Association meetings, he wrote proposal after proposal for these new forms, citing their successes overseas where traditional lotteries like the Golden Kiwi had disappeared. That his representations always fell on deaf ears caused stress for him and his team. He developed a nerve condition, which grew progressively worse. Then he slipped on unsteady legs, broke an ankle and was confined to a wheelchair for a month.

Degree of Accountability

Auditor-General Brian Tyler compounded his problems in December 1985 when he questioned the baggage of degree of accountability in Kiddle's operation, and particularly its expenses, the use of interest-bearing accounts and salaries. Although Tyler conceded that the operation was in accordance with the existing law (albeit that it needed drastic updating), the investigation deepened Kiddle's sense of personal grievance. It was a difficult time. The advent of the Labor government in 1984 did not immediately improve Lotto's chances, as new Minister of Internal Affairs Peter Tapsell was less enthusiastic than Highest had been. With the Golden Kiwi holding its own (just), the racing industry still threatened and a temporary 'economic squeeze', there seemed neither room nor need for another gambling game. In his first months Tapsell was unmoved by the growing number of organizations imploring him to authorize new forms of gambling to raise funds, particularly football pools and Lotto.

Pressure for Lotto

Pressure for Lotto was to prove irresistible. Sir Ron Scott, who led a government-sponsored committee which investigated sports development, recommended the game as the best way to fund not only sport, but also recreation, the arts and community projects. More assertively the New Zealand Sports Foundation, led by Keith Hancox, pleaded for extra funding to assist the country's top sportspeople after the triumphs at the 1984 Olympic Games. In its view, football pools or Lotto were the only practicable sources. Both groups had an influential political ally in Mike Moore, the Minister of Recreation and Sport, who was outspoken in his advocacy of the new game, predicting that it, would be under way before the end of 1986.

Conference Prediction

The Racing, Trotting and Greyhound Conferences, which represented those who felt most threatened by Lotto, were not about to concede defeat. In November 1985 they presented a comprehensive counter-argument to its introduction, predicting fall-offs in racing profits, a reduction in government taxation revenue, cheaper bloodstock and increased unemployment. They also claimed that, while New York lotto and sports funding were becoming synonymous in the public mind, there was 'no community demand' for the game. But their fears had no foundation. The Australian experience had been that after an initial settling-down period, horse-race betting and Lotto co-existed very well. Many Protestants, of course, were aghast at the prospect. Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Congregationalist and Mormon leaders all denounced Lotto. In a joint protest to Tapsell they cited the 'corrosive effect of gambling's greed and addiction which created delusion and disappointment within society'. But their worries no longer rang true to a wider, secular audience, and their denunciations were ignored even by many among the ranks of the faithful. Indeed, the president of the Methodist Church, Rev.