 Nurses holding up the drawn "Sweepstake Tickets" in 1946 | |
| Region | Ireland |
|---|---|
| First draw | 1930 |
The Irish Hospitals' Sweepstake was a lottery established in the Irish Free State in 1930 as the Irish Free State Hospitals' Sweepstake to finance hospitals. It is generally referred to as the Irish Sweepstake or Irish Sweepstakes, frequently abbreviated to Irish Sweep or Irish Sweeps. The Public Charitable Hospitals (Temporary Provisions) Act, 1930 was the act that established the lottery; as this act expired in 1934, in accordance with its terms, the Public Hospitals Acts were the legislative basis for the scheme thereafter.
The main organisers were Richard Duggan, Captain Spencer Freeman and Joe McGrath. Duggan was a well known Dublin bookmaker who had organised a number of sweepstakes in the decade prior to setting up the Hospitals' Sweepstake. Captain Freeman was a Welsh-born engineer and former captain in the British Army.
The ratio of winnings and charitable contributions to Sweepstake revenues proved low, and the scheme made its founders very rich.[1] The Sweepstake administrators wielded substantial political influence, allowing the scheme to flourish before it was finally wound up in the 1980s.[2][3]
- ^ Corless, Damian (2010). The Greatest Bleeding Hearts Racket in the World: Irish Hospitals Sweepstakes. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-7171-4669-7. OCLC 713568358.
- ^ Sheehan, Maeve (2010). "Review: The Greatest Bleeding Hearts Racket in the World by Damien Corless". independent. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
- ^ Dungan, Myles (17 November 2017). "On This Day – 17 November 1930 The first Irish Hospital Sweepstakes draw takes place". Myles Dungan. Retrieved 17 November 2021.