Grants for sport are a legitimate authorised purpose under the Gambling Act, but grants could not be used to pay for professional sport.
### ODT Online Wed, 23 May 2012
Grants meant for amateur rugby used to pay ORFU creditors
By Hamish McNeilly
Grants earmarked for the amateur rugby game were used by the Otago Rugby Football Union to pay creditors, New Zealand Rugby Union appointed change manager Jeremy Curragh has confirmed. He said yesterday all pokie grants received within the last financial year had been accounted for, with $65,000 to be returned to trusts as the money was not spent on its authorised purpose. In one example, a $25,000 grant from a local trust was supposed to have been paid to the Dunedin City Council for ground rentals for club and school matches, but was instead used by the union to pay other creditors.
Staff had applied for grants while the union was fighting off liquidation, as there always was the “intention they can avoid liquidation”.
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 
Wed, 23/05/2012 – 7:09am. farsighted Nothing illegal?
http://www.odt.co.nz/news/dunedin/210293/grants-meant-amateur-rugby-used-pay-orfu-creditors#comment-30281
Huge thanks to Bev Butler for getting on the trail of ORFU’s hazardous ways, and pushing the cause (via email) with Jeremy Curragh and media. Excellent work.
Hear hear!
Obviously this guy isn’t buddy buddy with one of the ORFU good old boys or a National minister. The DIA has to be seen to tell somebody off, might as well be a soft target, someone other than one of white-collar criminals scamming millions from the Dunedin public.
### Stuff Last updated 18:01 25/01/2013
Former Maori All Black guilty of $300k theft
By Amy Maas
[…]Debbie Despard, the Department of Internal Affairs’ gambling compliance director, said the department “works to ensure the integrity of gambling in New Zealand”. “The money involved in this case should have been distributed to the community, in particular to young people playing the national game of rugby,” she said. “Every dollar that is misappropriated from pokie machine grants is a dollar that is not available to the community.” Raki will be sentenced in April.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/8224591/Former-Maori-All-Black-guilty-of-300k-theft
Raki’s name has consistently been searched at this site for months.