Island Life

On Island Life on Sat 7th August we ran a story about Temo Van Tongeren, a Waiheke Islander running a competition to give away his house. You can hear  that interview here. Today Waiheke Radio  recieved the following statement from Department of Internal Affairs:

Internal Affairs’ Director of Gambling Compliance, Mike Hill, says the website competition offering a house, car and boat on Waiheke Island as the prize is illegal and the Department has told the organiser to stop the promotion.

Temo Van Tongeren of Surfdale, Waiheke Island, marketed his fundraiser as the ‘Win a Waiheke Island Lifestyle’ competition. The Department says this is “remote interactive gambling” under s 9(2) (b) of the Gambling Act 2003. Only the Lotteries Commission and the TAB are allowed to operate online gambling in New Zealand.

Mike Hill said Mr Van Tongeren took immediate steps to prevent people entering his competition after the Department contacted him and his willingness to cooperate was acknowledged.

“We warned Mr Van Tongeren that any future fund raising must be conducted within the law,” Mike Hill said.

Temo Van Tongeren (pictured above) and Nicoline Van Cann are Waiheke people currently attracting a lot of attention. Motivated by a desire to fund  unspecified projects that "aim to create a better life for us all, now and in the future", they've designed an on-line competition with their house and car as the prize. Temo and Nicoline appeared on Island Life to answer questions about their motivation, what they will they do with the money they raise, whether they are legit, and the legality of the scheme? The pair are sincere but there are strict rules about running any gambling activity or prize competition and what the funds raised can be used for and it's not clear that this scheme meets those criteria. The competition website is http://www.vt-trust.com and you can read more about the rules for fund-raising competitions in the Ministry of Internal Affairs Rules for Running a Gambling Activity and the Authorised Purpose Guidelines, which set out what the money can be spent on.

UPDATE 15 Aug: Waiheke Radio has sought clarification from the Department of Internal Affairs about any regulations that may impact on the VT-Trust competition. The Department has notified us that they could not answer our questions as are investigating this matter.

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