Public Lottery Statement
June 4, 2022 – Yesterday afternoon, the Victoria Hospitals Foundation (VHF) posted a tweet on our Twitter page announcing that Dr. Bonnie Henry had won the early bird prize of two e-bikes for the Emerge Stronger Hospitals Lottery—a public lottery to support the Foundation’s Emerge Stronger campaign to raise funds for priority hospital equipment. The Foundation subsequently removed the post yesterday after it generated negative feedback from the online community.
As an organization that values transparency and integrity above all else, VHF felt that sharing this information—rather than keeping it private within our organization—was the correct course of action.
As indicated by the BC Licensed Charitable Gaming Rules, the Foundation utilizes “[…] computer software or a computer application that utilizes a GPEB-certified software random number generator (RNG).” In this case, Raffle Nexus Canada, a certified gaming provider, was utilized to draw winners electronically using a Certified Random Number Generator (RNG). Dr. Bonnie Henry’s ticket (winning ticket #240705) was one of 4,226 tickets that qualified for this particular draw by purchasing a ticket before the early bird deadline. Our license issued for this particular raffle draw (BC Gaming License #132884) allows for a total of 26,000 tickets to be sold. Ticket sales are held from April 1, 2022 to June 8, 2022, with the early bird draw cut-off at 11:59 p.m. on May 9, 2022. The draw took place on May 10, 2022 at 11 a.m. at the Victoria Hospitals Foundation with the officers responsible present to witness the Raffle Nexus Canada online draw, at which time the winner was randomly selected.
You can find information on this process, as well as other organizations who use Raffle Nexus Canada: rafflenexus.com/
The Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch BC License Charitable Giving Rules state: “Board members and those listed as responsible for the conduct and management (officers responsible) of an event are not permitted to participate in any gaming events held by their organization.” VHF does not permit Board members or VHF staff to participate in any of the organization’s gaming activities. Dr. Henry is not an employee of the Foundation.
The Emerge Stronger Hospitals Lottery is licensed (BC Gaming License #132883 & 132884), and has, and continues to comply with Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch BC Licensed Charitable Gaming Rules.
VHF does not discriminate against any eligible community member who wishes to participate in our public lotteries. As clearly stated on our website and social media platforms, all draws are random. We are not permitted to redraw if we are not satisfied with the outcome of a draw.
Since Dr. Henry purchased a ticket for this lottery in advance of the early bird draw date, her ticket number was included with every other eligible community member who purchased ticket(s). While we understand that some community members are disheartened by the outcome of this draw, we remain assured that all proper protocols were followed and executed.
—Victoria Hospitals Foundation
