AGY-1124 | State Lotteries Office of New South Wales

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The State Lotteries Office had its origins in the State Lotteries Act (No. 51, 1930) which gave additional responsibility to the Treasury to conduct lotteries. (1) The Act was Proclaimed on 22 June 1931 (2) and the first Director was William Henry Whiddon. State Lotteries was established to provide the State Government with increased revenue to help fund the State’s hospitals. Increased community demand for medical services during the early years of the Great Depression could not be met by the current level of Government funding, so extra revenue was needed. The first lottery was drawn on 20 August 1931 and comprised 100,000 tickets with a ticket price of five shillings and threepence (53 cents) and a first prize of £5,000 .(3) From 1931 to 1932, almost £700,000 were raised for Government revenue through the lotteries. In 1997, the figure was $320.4 million. During the Great Depression a number of lotteries were conducted to celebrate special events such as the Christmas Gift Lottery of 1931, the Harbour Bridge Lotteries of 1932 and the Anniversary Lotteries of 1933. Special event lotteries have included the Opera House Lotteries conducted between 1958 and 1986, the Peace Lottery in 1986 to mark the International Year of Peace, and the Sydney 2000 Bid Lottery to raise money to help finance Sydney’s bid for the Olympic Games in the year 2000. The Mammoth Lottery was introduced in 1954 with tickets at £1 ($2) and a first prize of £30,000 ($60,000). Over time this has evolved into the continuous Jackpot Lottery. The Opera House Lotteries commenced selling on 25 November 1957 to finance the construction of the Sydney Opera House. The first Opera House Lottery was drawn in January 1958 with tickets priced at £5 ($10) each and a prize of £100,000 ($200,000). This lottery was revamped in 1960 with the costs of tickets reduced to £3 ($6) each and one-off prizes of $200,000 introduced. The Opera House Lotteries raised more than $105 million towards the construction of the Sydney Opera House. The last Opera House Lottery was drawn in September 1986. In 1993, a lottery was held to help finance Sydney’s bid for the Year 2000 Olympic Games.(4) On 22 October 1979, the game of Lotto was introduced and televised on Channel Nine. Between 1931 and May 1982, all lotteries were drawn by a guest extracting wooden marbles from a large wooden barrel. Since 20 May 1982, lotteries have been drawn by a computer generating random numbers. The Lotto Act (No. 53, 1979) allowed for a joint licence to be issued to the Director of State Lotteries and Lotto Management Services Pty Ltd to conduct the game of Lotto within NSW. However, from 1 August 1989, NSW Lotteries became the sole licensee to operate Lotto.(5) The Act was amended in 1988 by the Lotto (Amendment) Act 1988 (No. 72, 1988) to allow other forms of lotto to be introduced. Administratively, State Lotteries was the responsibility of Treasury until c.1983 when the Department of Finance became responsible. In 1988, the Department of Finance and Treasury were integrated and State Lotteries became a statutory body under the control of the Chief Secretary.(6) On 2 March 1991, NSW Lotteries was created by Act of Parliament, replacing the State Lotteries Office. FOOTNOTES 1. Concise Guide to the State Archives, volume Q-Sup 2. New South Wales Government Gazette, 19 June 1931, p. 2119. 3. New South Wales Lotteries Annual Report for the year ended 30 June 1997, p. 1. 4. New South Wales Lotteries Annual report for the year ended 30 June 1994, p. 2. 5. New South Wales Government Gazette, 28 July 1989, Part 1 ‘Definitions’, Section ‘r’, p. 4820. 6. Concise Guide to the State Archives, volume Q-Sup