| In 1930 the Irish Dail, or Parliament, passed | | | | transactions between ticket purchasers and |
| an act permitting the running of a | | | | the Dublin headquarters were conducted by |
| sweepstakes for the benefit of Irish | | | | mail. |
| hospitals; since then Americans have been | | | | |
| able to buy tickets in an honest Illinois | | | | Each year American ticket purchasers mailed |
| lottery whose top prize has been well over a | | | | millions of letters containing ticket stubs, |
| million dollars. | | | | checks, currency, money orders, bank drafts, |
| | | | etc., to the Irish Hospital's Sweepstakes |
| The Irish Free State government knew that a | | | | headquarters. |
| sweepstakes operation limited to Ireland | | | | |
| could not be successful and that tickets | | | | The U.S. Post Office made an attempt to stop |
| would also have to be sold in foreign | | | | these flagrant violations of our Federal |
| countries, particularly the United States. | | | | anti-lottery laws in 1935, when they stopped |
| | | | nearly a million of these letters and |
| Since the government could not itself | | | | returned them to the senders. |
| participate in violation of other countries' | | | | |
| anti-lottery laws, a private company, | | | | About the same time the British Home Office |
| Hospitals Trust, Ltd., was formed to operate | | | | banned all mail addressed to the Dublin |
| the Sweepstakes, and John McGrath, a former | | | | Sweepstakes office. The Sweeps promoters, |
| Minister of Industry and Minister of Labor in | | | | hard hit by these actions, know that if they |
| the Free State government, was named managing | | | | continued the Sweepstakes was doomed, and |
| director. His first partner was a | | | | they took immediate steps to set up a |
| professional bookie, Richard Duggan. | | | | smuggling operation. |
| | | | |
| The Sweeps promoters set up their first | | | | Today they employ agents in the United States |
| headquarters at 13 Earls- ford Terrace in | | | | who receive smuggled shipments of tickets in |
| Dublin, and their clerical staff originally | | | | bulk. |
| consisted of one typist Today, the | | | | |
| Sweepstakes is easily Ireland's largest and | | | | They have devised many ingenious smuggling |
| most profitable business enterprise. It has | | | | methods, and naturally also pay considerable |
| about 1,500 permanent employees and adds | | | | amounts of graft money to ensure safe |
| about 2,500 part-time employees during the | | | | delivery. Federal agents now and then find |
| drawings, which occur three times each year. | | | | such shipments disguised as legitimate |
| The plush Sweeps headquarters with its | | | | foreign imports. |
| teakwood floors is now one of the principal | | | | |
| tourist sights in Ireland. | | | | The largest was confiscated in 1948, when 82 |
| | | | cartons containing over 2 million tickets |
| Since the Sweeps is legal only in Ireland, | | | | were found aboard the transatlantic ocean |
| the operators cannot use paid advertising to | | | | liner America. |
| promote ticket sales in other countries and | | | | |
| have had to invent promotional gimmicks. One | | | | The most recent big Federal confiscation of |
| of the most effective, in the early days, was | | | | tickets was in 1950, when six men were |
| the floating ashore along our Atlantic coast | | | | arrested for bringing in over a million |
| of a great many fish-shaped bottles, each | | | | Sweeps tickets. |
| containing a paper entitling the finder to a | | | | |
| drink of his choice at any tavern and asking | | | | Today, such seizures do not throw a monkey |
| him to drink to good luck in the Irish | | | | wrench into the ticket sales for that |
| Sweepstakes. | | | | drawing, contrary to what one might think; |
| | | | the attempt to smuggle the tickets in is made |
| Jack Dempsey honored some of these papers at | | | | months before the scheduled drawing so that |
| the Eighth Avenue bar he then operated in New | | | | there is time to replace any confiscated |
| York City. The bottles created much talk and | | | | shipment. All the promoters lose is the |
| received a great amount of news- paper | | | | manufacturing and shipping costs. |
| publicity because most people believed the | | | | |
| bottles had floated all V the way across the | | | | The trusted agents who receive these large |
| Atlantic. | | | | shipments redistribute them to agents |
| | | | throughout the country, who, in turn, |
| Actually the Sweeps promoters had arranged to | | | | distribute to sub- agents and sellers in |
| have them dumped by the thousands into our | | | | their territory. |
| offshore coastal waters. Then, in 1931, | | | | |
| when the press reported that Emilio Scala, a | | | | The ticket stubs and cash pass back through |
| London candy-store proprietor, had won | | | | this organization setup to the major agents, |
| $1,773,660 to become the biggest money winner | | | | who again smuggle the ticket stubs back to |
| in the history of the Irish Sweepstakes and, | | | | Dublin and send the money either by personal |
| for that matter, in any Online lottery ever | | | | check or by means of some international money |
| held, the American public began begging for | | | | transaction which makes it impossible for |
| Sweepstakes tickets. | | | | U.S. postal or Customs authorities to |
| | | | confiscate the cash. |
| Initially all correspondence and money | | | | |