By KEITH PERRY
Church leaders are denouncing Lotto organisers and TVNZ for promoting gambling on Christmas Day.
The Churches Broadcasting Commission says screening the regular Saturday superdraw on Christmas Day is illegal because the law bans advertising programmes on December 25.
It hopes to launch a legal challenge to stop the screening, arguing
that a lottery draw also goes against the spirit of Christmas, which should be a family occasion.
TVNZ could face fines of up to $100,000 for allowing the draw on Christmas Day, the commission says.
But TVNZ and the Ministry of Commerce insist that broadcasting the Lotto results is not an advertisement but an information service because people have already bought their tickets and need to know the results.
A TVNZ spokesman, Liam Jeory, said: "We, the Lotteries Commission and the Ministry of Commerce don't see it as an advert - and neither do our lawyers.
"It is a regular programme on Saturday nights and ... it imparts information, whereas an ad tries to attract people into buying something. The Lotto programme doesn't do this as by the time it is screened it is already too late to buy a ticket."
He added that many people were likely to get Lotto tickets as stocking fillers and would be annoyed if they could not get their results the next day.
But the chairman of the Churches Broadcasting Commission, the Rev Ray Oppenheim, said last night that his group was simply asking that the spirit and letter of the law be upheld and the draw brought forward to December 24.
