Shag trouble

Many newly-weds to be have been canceling their shags following some confusion about the rules surrounding the raffling off of prizes.

Carmen Minnella and Sherry Buitenhuis have their shag – this region’s version of a stag and doe party – scheduled for Oct. 29 at the CLE’s Coliseum. But hall staff recently told them they couldn’t have prizes at their shag because of laws under the Alcohol and Gaming Commission’s regulations concerning special occasion permits.

Because newlyweds-to-be aren’t considered charities, they aren’t allowed to have lottery-style raffles for prizes. The law has been in effect for about 30 years, but was never enforced.

Until now.

Minnella has spent $2,000 on prizes alone for his shag and said had he known about the law earlier, he probably wouldn’t have organized the money-making wedding party at all.

"We had all this done already and all of a sudden they decide to (enforce it)," he said. "You can’t just take something away they’ve been allowing to go on…this is something they were ignoring and because people are generating money with it, they’re making it a problem."

While Minnella was told prizes aren’t allowed, Moose Hall administrator Patrick Cross said an enforcement officer told him people can still have prizes at shags, but they have to have skill-based events to win prizes.

"You can’t just buy a ticket, throw it in a drum, draw a ticket and say that’s your winner," he said, adding the skills competition could be as simple as a mathematical question or some type of event a person has to perform.

Cross has received many panicked phone calls over the past few days from people who have booked shags at the hall and said there is a lot of misinformation circulating.

"People are saying shags are being shut down; that is not true," he said. "As long as they adhere to these new expectations then everything is fine."

According to Lisa Murray, spokesperson for the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, any event where a ticket is purchased but there’s a possibility of loss is considered a lottery.

A lottery can be conducted by a charitable or religious organization if they obtain a license form the province or a municipality.

"Private individuals, among others, do not qualify for a lottery license and this legal framework has been in place in the province for many years," Murray said.

The reason this law is only being enforced now is because the AGCO received complaints that lotteries were being conducted at shags, she added.

"Under our mandate, the AGCO looks into all complaints that we receive from members of the public," she said. "The matter was forwarded to our investigation branch for follow-up and we do have an office in Thunder Bay that was looking into this."

The Moose Hall has shags booked well into next fall Cross said, adding they haven’t had any cancellations. However, if they can’t host shags, the hall would certainly close, he said.