Letters to the editor: Why not share the total Lotto prize money every week?

Why not share the total Lotto prize money every week? Photo / File

I cringed when I realised the latest big prize in Lotto was $34 million.

Nobody should be able to win so much in the form of a single prize. When workers are about to lose their jobs, and families are stretched to their financial limits, the Government could be a lot kinder where it counts.

Why not share the total Lotto prize money every week? Offer sensible prizes that would still be attractive enough for ticket buyers, for instance: tier one, $5000, tier two, $7500; and tier three, $10,000.

Any of those prizes could help families. The prize of $34m could have been shared out as 10,000 prizes of $3400 or 3400 prizes of $10,000.

Imagine what a difference that would make for families. I feel that many people might support this idea and it could make Lotto even more popular.

Morally, it needs to be introduced ASAP to help families survive the impact of Covid-19. Later, when the virus has disappeared, Lotto as we know it, can simply be reset, and returned to its current format.

If you like this idea please ask your MP to support it.

Russell McKenzie
Tauranga

No wellness benefits to legalisation

It is criminal that Government advice on the pros and cons of legalising cannabis is non-existent and only points people to websites on the vague contents of the Bill itself.

We are not being told of consequences such as increased use, the harm caused to under-age users, marginal reduction in criminal involvement, drug driving and so on.

Think also that this is the thin end of the wedge because high-profile initiatives have popped up in the US states that have legalised dope, to now decriminalise psychedelics in the form of magic mushrooms containing psilocybin on so-called medical grounds.

There are no wellness benefits to legalisation.

Follow the money and see who will benefit and it isn't the users.

B Ingram
Papamoa

Rates

So much for Tauranga City Council setting the rates increase at 3.9 per cent. I have just received my rates bill, which has increased by over 8 per cent.

How does the council justify such an increase given the rate of inflation and the uncertain times that we are facing?

Steve Porter
Welcome Bay

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