Lottery Mania (From Bucks Free Press)

Lottery Mania

2:34am Saturday 13th February 2010

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A few hours ago a lucky person in the UK just won £56 million. Yes, that’s right: £56,000,000 all to themselves- no tax deductions- nothing. And to win that all they did was choose seven numbers from a draw and pay £2 to play. It could have been even more though; if someone on the continent hadn’t also matched all the numbers that Brit would now be claiming £130 million...

I’m afraid that I have recently caught lottery fever too; that is of course a good and a bad thing. The good first. I am actually making a profit as of 13th February- as I have had three £10 winning tickets in the last three weeks in the Thunderball draw. If you’re not familiar with the National Lotteries various games I’ll quickly go through the main ones: With Thunderall, the maximum prize is (only!) £250,000 but with many different ways to win at only £1 a play it is, in my opinion the best one to play, and indeed my 3 ten quid notes all came from this draw. The Lotto is the one with the jackpot of several million- £1 a play again but with fewer chances of winning. Euromillions is the biggie with the minimum jackpot usually no less than £10m. Then there are few other ones which I won’t go into here.

I mentioned my playing being good and bad. Well I have mentioned the good point (as so far I am winning) and I suppose it is enjoyable, as are most forms of responsible gambling. But that’s where it goes from good to bad.

Gambling is a horrible thing unless you have perfect self control. The man who wins a fiver and then proceeds to gamble it away unsuccessfully is in a worse position than when he started. If you’re sensible and can control yourself the odd loss is no huge problem. It’s when you start to try and earn your money back that you’re on a slippery slope; gambling away your hard earned cash desperately trying to break even and get back the money you paid just to play the game.

What makes it worse of course is the lottery is only a mild offender. I personally have never been in a casino or a bookmakers and I don’t really want to either- I’m not a betting person; I don’t like horse racing and poker just leaves me puzzled the second I try to understand it.

The main lottery is a mild offender but stray into the world of online gambling and it goes from bad to worse. The internet now allows you to lose money without having to lift a finger except to press a mouse button. The National Lottery is a bad offender here; offering tempting games which apparently can pay out hundreds of thousands for £1 a go. I’ve tried them and they are hopelessly addictive and highly cash consuming.

Fortunately I gave myself a slap on the wrist and said no- after playing a couple of “Instant Wins” and winning nothing I stopped. Those games are dangerous in my opinion; it‘s real money people are using to play those games, and there’s no skill involved- you just click and the computer decides your (almost always unfavourable) outcome.

So what can I say? Gambling is wonderful and terrible. It depends on the player. If you are sensible then playing the lottery can be an enjoyable weekly thing and if you’re lucky profitable. If you’re not sensible it can ruin your life.

Do you have any personal lottery or gambling related stories? If so please do share!

(And this is my tenth blog, as you may have deduced from the X. Yay!)

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