HC Deb 04 December 1934 vol 295 cc1408-9
21. Mr. PIKE (for Mr. NORTH)

asked the Postmaster-General whether, in view of the fact that at the present time it is provided under the inland post warrants of 1923 to 1926 that no postal packet containing a ticket of any kind relating to a lottery at home or abroad may be transmitted by post and that, under the Betting and Lotteries Act recently placed on the Statute Book, certain lotteries have now been established as legal lotteries, he will consider the desirability of taking early steps to procure the amendment of the provision in question, in order that legal lottery tickets may now be transmitted by post?

The ASSISTANT POSTMASTER-GENERAL (Sir Ernest Bennett)

Section 23 of the new Betting and Lotteries Act, which exempts small lotteries incidental to certain entertainments, contains a provision that tickets in such lotteries shall not be sold except on the premises on which the entertainment takes place, and no question of the use of the post therefore arises. Again, Section 24, which exempts certain private lotteries, specifically provides that no tickets in such lotteries shall be sent through the post. The question of amending the Post Office regulation does not therefore arise.

Mr. PIKE

Does the hon. Gentleman suggest that tickets for sweepstakes organised under the Dublin Hospitals Sweepstake are not tickets sold upon the premises upon which the sweepstake takes place, and is it not the intention of the Betting and Lotteries Act to facilitate the acquisition of those tickets by the public?

Sir E. BENNETT

That question does not arise. The question before me deals only with lotteries rendered legal by the last Act.

Mr. LOGAN

Is it not possible that if an individual buys a ticket, and it is legal to buy it, he would have a right to send it from one member of the family to another?

Sir E. BENNETT

Not at all. The sending of lottery tickets through the post, whether the lotteries are technically legal or illegal, is against the law.

Mr. PIKE

Does not the hon. Gentleman think the whole position, as defined recently by the right hon. Gentleman, is totally unsatisfactory?