A fuss has been made of Pain and Kershaw’s Lotto outlet. Very few other stores in the whole of New Zealand have remained under the same ownership since the launch of Lotto twenty-five years ago and the Lotteries Commission has acknowledged the loyalty of their only foundation member left in the Wairarapa in their birthday celebrations.
When Lotto was first mooted in Martinbrough in 1987, David and his father, Harry, had long discussions about its viability. A lot of space had to be set aside in an already cramped store and the area had to be ‘Lottoized’ with the special machine, counter, advertising, painting and flooring – at considerable cost to the retailer.
Both men rightly thought it would cause the demise of the popular Golden Kiwi raffle, which at times saw queues of people lining up on a Monday morning to buy the limited tickets.
However, David realized the opportunity and the fact that it would go to someone else in town if they turned it down so forged ahead after the Lotto representative visited them three times.
Harry was away the day the important cheque to the Lotteries Commission was to be handed over so David asked the company secretary to counter-sign it but she refused on the grounds that promoting gambling was against her beliefs!
With this glitch sorted, David won money in the first three draws and thought it was a license to print money! Needless to say that run of luck was short lived but P&K punters have bought seven first division winners and won many other valuable prizes over the years.
In total, over 200,000 Lotto winners have collected more than $7.2 million by buying their tickets at Pain and Kershaw.
Ineke Kershaw
