How much do you spend on the lottery/scratchards

patchwork_cat

Bought them a few times when first came out and joined in the syndicate at work for fun and inclusion(broke even on this!). Haven't bought one for years until this week bought one for euromillions again for a bit of fun.

BlondeHeadOn

Is it only me who has a different view on this? I buy a lottery ticket every week, but in the same way that I subscibe £1 to the local hospice lottery every week. As far as I am concerned it is a charitable donation, with the potential bonus of maybe winning a prize every now and then.

I like some of the diverse charities that the Lotto help, and I like it when I go to a gallery of theatre production that say "National Lottery funded". I like to think that this money is doing some good, and maybe helping out a cause that I wouldn't usually have thought of helping - and that's worth it to me.

If I win a prize then that's great, and brightens up my week (even if it's only a few quid) but it not the reason I play or subscribe.

Tropez

BlondeHeadOn wrote: »

Is it only me who has a different view on this? I buy a lottery ticket every week, but in the same way that I subscibe £1 to the local hospice lottery every week. As far as I am concerned it is a charitable donation, with the potential bonus of maybe winning a prize every now and then.

I like some of the diverse charities that the Lotto help, and I like it when I go to a gallery of theatre production that say "National Lottery funded". I like to think that this money is doing some good, and maybe helping out a cause that I wouldn't usually have thought of helping - and that's worth it to me.

If I win a prize then that's great, and brightens up my week (even if it's only a few quid) but it not the reason I play or subscribe.

I completely agree with this. There's a lot of various causes that are helped by lottery funds. Admittedly, only 28p in every pound you spend goes to good causes but the number of good causes and the various types of good causes means that money is given to causes you would never have heard of before.

There was a sum of lottery money spent in a nearby town to clear out some derelict land as part of a community drive and as a result in that area now crime is down, employment is up and people seem happier.

Of course, the idea of winning a few million is what keeps most people buying the tickets but even if you don't win, you're still helping people in one way or another and that's a worthy cause and if you're happy not to win but happy with the help that the National Lottery gives to others then more power to you.

pigpen

I have never bought a card or ticket.. I am one of the lucky sorts that if they told me the numbers in advance Id still not win lol

davetrousers

oops.......................ignore

Lotus-eater

Tropez wrote: »

Admittedly, only 28p in every pound you spend goes to good causes but the number of good causes and the various types of good causes means that money is given to causes you would never have heard of before.

But 50p goes to the prizes, the remainder to tax, the retailer and 5 pence to camalot.

You can believe if you want that it's a charity help tank, but at 28p in the pound it's not really.

zoesmummy_2006

i havent bought a ticket in a long time, the last time i think was euromillions couple years and i got 3 numbers......won £7!!!! the woman i used to rent from actually won one of the £40,000 a year for life scratchcards-jammy jammy thing!!!

Tropez

Lotus-eater wrote: »

But 50p goes to the prizes, the remainder to tax, the retailer and half a pence to camalot.

You can believe if you want that it's a charity help tank, but at 28p in the pound it's not really.

It breaks down as 45p to the prize fund, 5p to Camelot, 5p to the retailers, 12p to taxation and 5p towards future superdraw jackpots.

Even at 28 pence in the pound the lottery generates over £1.3bn per year for good causes. Of course it is not just a charity help tank but that is certainly a good sum of money that can help a lot of people and is representative of around 10% of donations made directly to charities. It is also a good thing, in my mind, that a larger group of good causes can benefit from lottery funding. The bulk of donations made directly in this country go directly towards the same group of charities, which is hardly surprising as these charities have the bigger advertising budgets and are therefore able to stay in the public conscience. While the work that all these charities do is worthy in itself, lottery funding reaches a wider number of causes, ones that the public may not necessarily be aware of and as I say, I find this to be a good thing.

I'm not kidding myself that the lottery is only there to help charities but I'm not about to dismiss more than £1bn per year of funding for good causes because only 28% of revenues head to good causes.

lisawood78

Never played the lottery or scratchcards.

But perhaps once or twice a year we go to Blackpool/Yarmouth and blow a few £100 in the arcades.

Always bring back plenty of stuff though, some rubbish, some great stuff. (we play the ticket machines) Came back from Blackpool last week with a petrol powered quad bike for the niece. Ok, sure we could have got it for less if we had purchased it direct but we enjoyed the playing to get it.
30'000 tickets though, thank goodness they had ticket counting machines!!

BlondeHeadOn

Tropez wrote: »

It breaks down as 45p to the prize fund, 5p to Camelot, 5p to the retailers, 12p to taxation and 5p towards future superdraw jackpots.

Even at 28 pence in the pound the lottery generates over £1.3bn per year for good causes. Of course it is not just a charity help tank but that is certainly a good sum of money that can help a lot of people and is representative of around 10% of donations made directly to charities. It is also a good thing, in my mind, that a larger group of good causes can benefit from lottery funding. The bulk of donations made directly in this country go directly towards the same group of charities, which is hardly surprising as these charities have the bigger advertising budgets and are therefore able to stay in the public conscience. While the work that all these charities do is worthy in itself, lottery funding reaches a wider number of causes, ones that the public may not necessarily be aware of and as I say, I find this to be a good thing.

I'm not kidding myself that the lottery is only there to help charities but I'm not about to dismiss more than £1bn per year of funding for good causes because only 28% of revenues head to good causes.

Well said!

:T