Raffle crackdown

Kevin Wilson
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jun 15/01) - Buying a $5 strip of tickets for a chance at a prime rib roast is gambling, according to the NWT Liquor Licensing Board.

In a letter dated May 29 to Forty Below Golf, the board informed the bar's owners that holding meat raffles on a licensed premise "is not permitted under the Liquor Act."

Who gets what Forty Below's raffle has contributed: between $15-$17,000 to the Stanton Regional Hospital Foundation $1,250 to Yellowknife Education District No. 1 for its lunch program $1,250 to Yellowknife Catholic Schools for its lunch program $500 to the RCMP for the Children's Wish Foundation It's estimated each raffle raises between $500 and $1,000

The letter, signed by R.A. O'Brien, co-ordinator of liquor enforcement, advised the bar to, "cease this practice immediately."

Several licensed establishments, among them The Raven Pub and Forty Below, host meat raffles to raise money for charity.

In the wake of the ominous-sounding letter, they've stopped the raffles.

"We've done exactly what they told us to do," says Linda Dunsmore, one of Forty Below's five owners.

"We're not looking for a confrontation with the board," she added.

Sandy Graham, a fellow owner, says he doesn't, "see what the big problem is."

The bar neither profits directly from the raffles nor runs it themselves but simply provides the venue for the Forty Below Benevolent Association, which organizes the draws.

"It hurts us because people aren't coming in as much, but more than that, it's hurting the hospital," says Graham.

Dunsmore says that the board's interpretation of the act will have far-reaching implications.

"People can't go in the bar and sell tickets. It's even illegal to give away tickets," she says.

That would put a crimp in several fund-raisers held in Yellowknife watering holes.

Contestants participating in Caribou Carnival's Quest for the Crown often sell their tickets in licensed establishments, while the Gallery nightclub gives out free tickets for door prizes during its charity bachelor auction.

Delilah St. Arneault, the Liquor Licensing Board's manager of licensing and enforcement, declined comment when contacted by Yellowknifer.

"(The raffle issue) is with our legal people right now," she says.

Sue Glowach, executive director for the Stanton Regional Hospital Foundation, says her organization receives "significant funds from the clubs and the bars."

Glowach says that last year Forty Below's meat raffles brought in $8,800. The money was used to buy a birthing bed and IV pumps.

Glowach says she is "hoping that common sense will prevail."