COMMONS AMENDMENT. (Hansard, 15 November 1934)

§ THE MARQUESS OF LONDONDERRY

My Lords, Clause 20 makes it an offence to send out of Great Britain any money received in respect of the sale or distribution of any ticket or chance in a lottery, and money is defined in Clause 26 as including a cheque, banknote, postal order or money order. This is not an exhaustive description of the means which might be adopted for sending money out of this country in respect of lotteries promoted abroad, and the object of the Amendment is to add "or valuable thing." I would point out to your Lordships that postage stamps might be used as a means of transmitting money abroad.

I should like to take this opportunity, if I may, of correcting statements which I have seen in the Press as to the effect of what the Home Secretary said in another place when dealing with the ques- 483 tion of new criminal offences. The Home Secretary stated that it would not be an offence under the Bill, any more than it is under the existing law, for a person to purchase a ticket in the Irish sweepstakes. That is the position, and no one who purchases a ticket for his personal use and does not sell or distribute tickets will himself be exposed to criminal penalties. This appears to have been interpreted by the Irish Hospitals Trust as giving them full freedom to flood this country with tickets in their sweepstakes sent through the post. But it must not be overlooked that in passing this Bill Parliament intended to put restrictions on the flow of money from this country to the Irish sweepstakes, and, without going into details of the methods which the Government will adopt, I think I ought to inform the House that the Government will take such steps as they consider necessary to give effect to the intention of Parliament to check the export of money from this country to lotteries promoted outside this country. I beg to move.