Inspectors bust cloak-and-dagger housie profits scam

By JOSIE CLARKE

Top-secret locations. Thousands of dollars hidden in plastic bags. Burly lookouts. And a cast of 400 women who drive through the night across the North Island for a slice of the action.

This is no movie script. This is underground housie.

Last Sunday afternoon, seven Department of Internal Affairs gaming inspectors burst into a New Plymouth hall armed with search warrants. They busted a sophisticated scam that lured hundreds of mainly middle-aged and elderly women all over the island chasing thousands in prize money, and illegally netted its three women organisers $10,000 a game.

That was until the inspectors entered the hall, having made their way past lookouts sitting in cars with two-way radios - "pretty big boys ... you'd be a brave person to take them on," said one of the inspectors, Kevin Coffey.

Inside the hall they met stunned silence from the 400 or so women playing for prizes of up to $5000, far exceeding the normal maximum payout of $700.

"We announced that they were participating in an illegal game of chance, and then they got a bit snipey. People have paid good money and travelled all night and then we bowl in with a search warrant. People are pretty peeved off," Mr Coffey said.

In the boot of a car out the back, inspectors found just over $23,000 in notes wrapped in plastic bags, as well as another $5000 in the hall.

Three women, two from Hamilton and one from New Plymouth, are helping the inspectors with their inquiries. Organisers could be jailed for a maximum of three months or pay a $4000 fine.

But the players are unlikely to be prosecuted - this time.

"Quite simply, there's 400 of them and seven of us."

The system, which doubles as a social get-together for the core band of 400, is shrouded in secrecy right from the start, Mr Coffey said.

Up to 10 deputies of the three organisers pre-sell $100 packages on a need-to-know basis at legitimate housie games, but only to those in the "clique."

The packages include house and super- house cards, and a ticket which is non-committal about prizes, "but everyone knows what it means."

Punters know the general area they will be travelling to, but the venue and the game's start time remain a secret to everyone except the organisers until the last minute. Finally, they are told what time a mini-van or bus will be making a run down a street in their area to pick them up.

"They line up at the bus stop with their package in their overnight bag and the mini-van comes along and off they go."

Throughout the night and the next morning, players arrive at an arranged meeting spot. Last Sunday they gathered at 7 am for breakfast and a karaoke singalong to fill in time until start time at 11 am. Many had bussed in from Hamilton, Wellington, Auckland and Palmerston North.eip

The strict security protects a lucrative money-spinner. "They don't want their golden goose shut down. There's over 400 of these packages sold, so that's over $40,000. Organisers would expect to pocket $10,000 a pop profit, so it's not bad money if you're doing it once a month," Mr Coffey said.

The department shut down a large illegal operation in Upper Hutt four years ago, another in Seaview two years later, and five smaller set-ups in the past year alone.

Whakatane, Hamilton and Auckland have recently hosted the games, and the department knows there is another planned for Rotorua.

The department's aim is to ensure that legal housie games are not disadvantaged. All housie sessions must be licensed under the Gaming and Lotteries Act 1977.

Mr Coffey said: "We are not trying to make criminals out of people who go to housie."