A Flutter With a Cause

Despite the palpable need for charity fundraising after World War One in order to help support old soldiers, hospitals and families on a low income; the gambling aspect had not been legalised. A decade after the end of the war, the debate rumbled on.  The Home Secretary in 1928 was the Conservative MP William Joynson-Hicks - known to be uptight, pious and prudish. Newspapers and Hansard report on various run-ins between Joynson-Hicks and other MPs who were frustrated at the issue of lucrative charity lotteries and tombolas leading to prosecutions. Even worse, some fundraisers were broken up by the police and prosecuted, while others seemed to fall under the radar. A particular point of discussion that year concerned two events in Brighton. On 4th July of that year, Sir Cooper Rawson, MP for the constituency, asked the Home Secretary  "...why a voluntarily organised draw on behalf of the funds of a Hove hospital was stopped by the Home Office whilst draws conducted on identical...

For much of the 20th century, gambling - even for a good cause - was not supported by law. This came under strain during the First World War, when those at home felt a compelling need to do whatever they could for those at the front, and those that had been severely injured. But even in May 1918, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner publicly drew attention to  "the fact that to advertise, hold or promote a lottery, tombola, sweepstake, raffle...etc is an offence against the law." (Holloway Press, 31.05.1918).  In the same breath as expressing sympathy for war charities, the fundraisers were being told in no uncertain terms that if they broke this law, action would be taken against them. Apparently a surge in this type of fundraising was the catalyst for this pronouncement. In the August of that same year, a bill went to the commons to legalise lotteries for war charities - and only for those registered under the War Charities Act of 1916 -  but this was defeated...