Prize home lottery

A prize home lottery is a type of lottery in which a single-unit residential building is awarded as opposed to a lump sum financial prize.[1] Prize home lotteries began to appear across North America, Australia, and Western Europe in the 1950s.[2] While a number of homes built prior to this have historically been associated with lottery winnings, typically they were funded with traditional lottery earnings and not through a formal prize home lottery.[3]

Show homes are commonly awarded in prize home lotteries

History
The 1902 Sangster House in Navasota, Texas was funded with traditional lottery earnings, not through a prize home lottery.

The earliest home lotteries took place in Canada. The first home lottery in North America was in 1934 in Vancouver, Canada.[4][5] In the spring of 1939, Toronto mayor Ralph Day came under scrutiny since the earliest home lotteries were not governmentally regulated.[6] In 1944, the Ottawa Journal announced that the Canadian province of Ontario was experiencing "an epidemic of house lotteries."[7]

Outside of Canada, the idea of a prize home lottery started becoming widespread in the United States, Australia, and Western Europe in the 1950s.[8][9][10][11][12] Today, a contemporary example can be seen in the RSL Australia Prize Home Lottery, which is a notable prize home lottery in Australia.[13][14]

Government regulation

Prize home lotteries have historically been subject to government regulation and have sometimes led to lawsuits. For example, in 1958, an entrepreneur named Ronald A. Hodges registered Canadian patents pertaining to prize home lotteries, including one patent for "division of property in a dream home contest."[15][16] This led to a lawsuit, R. v. Hodges in 1959.[17][18][19] In 1960, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled prize home lotteries illegal in Canada.[20][21][22] This decision did not last long, however, as numerous dream home lotteries were held in Canada in the 1960s.[23][24]

In television

Although prize home lotteries became widespread in the 1950s, it was not until 2015 that the concept of a prize home lottery was used as the premise of a television programme with HGTV's My Lottery Dream Home.[25][26][27] Hosted by David Bromstad, the programme is a joint production between Seven Network and Beyond International.[28][29] In 2021, My Lottery Dream Home International, a related programme with a global as opposed to American focus premiered with host Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen.[30] Other television programmes like Mitre 10 Dream Home and Extreme Makeover: Home Edition award prize homes though their selection process is not in the form of a lottery.[31][32]

Notable prize home lotteries

See also

References
  1. "Australian Prize Homes". PrizeLink.com.au. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  2. "Come to the Exhibition, See the Dream Home [Advertisement]". Edmonton Journal. July 18, 1955. p. 12.
  3. Montgomery, Robin; Montgomery, Joy (2012). Navasota. Images of America. Arcadia Publishing. p. 80. ISBN 978-0738595023.
  4. "PNE Prize Home ticket still popular after 80 years". Vancouver Is Awesome. Retrieved 2022-09-04.
  5. "PNE PRIZE HOME CELEBRATES ITS 80TH ANNIVERSARY" (PDF). Pacific National Exhibition. January 2018.
  6. "Toronto Mayor Denies That Awarding $11,500 House Was Lottery". The Windsor Star. April 24, 1939. p. 2.
  7. "A Fine House For A Dollar". Ottawa Journal. December 8, 1944. p. 8.
  8. "Enter The Dream Home Race Now!". The Chicago Defender. September 28, 1959. p. 1.
  9. "You Can Win A Dream Home for 6d". Evening Chronicle. Newcastle upon Tyne. November 23, 1959. p. 14.
  10. "How To Win Your Dream Home". The London Daily Telegraph. May 10, 1957. p. 10.
  11. "Mr. Whale, Mystery Man, Wins £14,500 Prize". The Sydney Morning Herald. December 10, 1959. p. 1.
  12. "Club For Lonely Widows". The Liverpool Echo. July 22, 1954. p. 4.
  13. Keller, Lisa (2022-06-27). "Don't miss your chance at a $1.1 Metricon home and land package in MS Society's Game Changer Lottery! • Glam Adelaide". Glam Adelaide. Retrieved 2022-08-20.
  14. "Australian Prize Homes". PrizeLink.com.au. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  15. "Books, Pamphlets, Serials, Contributions to Periodicals". Catalog of Copyright Entries: January-June 1958. Third Series. Library of Congress. 1958. p. 302.
  16. "127172 Dream Home Contest". Canadian Patent Office Record. 86: 4687. 1958.
  17. "R. v. Hodges [1959]". CanLII. Supreme Court of Canada. December 10, 1959.
  18. "Lottery Case". The Lethbridge Herald. August 1, 1959. p. 16.
  19. "11 Canadian Fairs Settle With Hodges". Billboard Magazine: 43. July 4, 1960.
  20. "Supreme Court Rules Home Contest Illegal". The Edmonton Journal. April 11, 1960. p. 30.
  21. "Dream Home Contests Ltd. v. The Queen, 1960". CanLII. April 11, 1960.
  22. "Dream Home Contests Ltd. v. The Queen [1960]". CanLII. Supreme Court of Canada. April 11, 1960.
  23. "Jasper Place Man Wins Display Home". The Edmonton Journal. July 24, 1961. p. 3.
  24. "You May Win a 1964 Dream Home [Advertisement]". Saskatoon Star-Phoenix. July 17, 1964. p. 6.
  25. "My Lottery Dream Home". IMDb. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  26. Starr, Michael (17 February 2018). "'My Lottery Dream Home' finds comfy digs for big prize winners". New York Post. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  27. "HGTV Orders 28 New Episodes of 'My Lottery Dream Home' Starring David Bromstad". Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  28. Johns, Gibson. "HGTV's David Bromstad spills on the backstage secrets of 'My Lottery Dream Home'". AOL.com. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
  29. Manning, James (November 1, 2017). "Inside the 7Beyond US joint venture". Mediaweek.
  30. "HGTV Accelerates Show Orders to Put 16 New Series and Pilots in the Pipeline for 2021". The Futon Critic. October 19, 2020.
  31. Block is no Dream Home – copyright and television program formats Archived 2011-07-08 at the Wayback Machine Accessed 23-9-2010
  32. "Mitre 10 Dream Home | Television New Zealand | Entertainment | TV One, TV2, U". Archived from the original on 2012-09-20.
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