'17 draws and no winners'
באדיבות מפעל הפיס
MK Pines: Consider canceling lottery
Labor lawmaker calls for urgent Finance Committee meeting on drop in chances of winning first prize in Mifal HaPais Double Lotto, says if need be, committee will not hesitate to revoke lottery license
Labor MK Ophir Pines on Sunday demanded the Knesset Finance Committee convene for an urgent meeting on the drop in chances of winning big prizes in Mifal HaPais' Double Lotto draw.
He urged the committee to demand explanations as to the change in participants' probability of winning the raffle, and said if the provided answers are not satisfactory, the committee will not hesitate to intervene and take the legal action available to it against Mifal HaPais to revoke its license.
Power to authorize the license is granted to the committee by the Treasury.
In an urgent letter to Committee Chairman MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), Pines said that in the past 17 consecutive draws there hasn't been a single winner for the first prize, which has risen to over NIS 72 million (about $19 million).
Meanwhile, money continues to flow into Mifal HaPais at a rate significantly higher than in the past, he added.
Pines told Ynet that Mifal HaPais' income has risen 40% in the recent period, while the relative chances of a winner to win first prize has dropped from one in 14 million guesses to 18 million guesses.
In his letter he relied on statistic estimates and asked the committee to examine whether this change is justified and in line with the Treasury's limitations for authorizing raffles.
"There are concerns that with the current system, Mifal HaPais has gone too far, with the chances of winning excessively hurt, and the lottery draws have been blown into monstrous dimensions and are extracting money from the public, which lives in an illusion that the chances of winning first prize remain as they were," Pines said.
"It is our duty as public officials to look out for the citizens and the developments of recent weeks raise the concern that the public has been hurt by the changes made to the draws," he added.
"With all due respect to Mifal HaPais' contribution to funding public projects, it seems the balance (between the income and the chances of winning) has been broken and the situation is out of hand."
A spokesperson from MK Gafni's office said he would consider on Monday whether to convene the committee. The source said however, that it is unlikely that a hearing would be held this week.
