how best to invest a sum of £30,000 for the highest return

innovate

Of all the casino games, BJ has got the lowest house edge, i.e. the punter has the best chances of losing the least money in BJ. But lose they will, sooner or later. Most of them sooner.

BJ also has an element of skill - whereas Roulette is literally pure pot luck. But both are mugs' games, and if you play them in casinos, as a punter you are statistically bound to lose big time.

There are plenty of websites with more detailed explanations of things like house edge, probability calculators, strategies etc etc etc - but it all comes down to a single common denominator for the punter - - - the house edge of the casino operator. Which is skewed against the punter, and always will be.

Sampong

Actually there are casino games with lower house edge than Blackjack, some forms of Video Poker for example are below 0.01% with perfect strategy.

I kind of missed where the thread changed from "best place to invest 30k" to a discussion about Casino Games.

innovate

Sampong wrote: »

Actually there are casino games with lower house edge than Blackjack, some forms of Video Poker for example are below 0.01% with perfect strategy.

Yeah, you are probably right there, some casinos might offer this.

Sampong wrote: »

I kind of missed where the thread changed from "best place to invest 30k" to a discussion about Casino Games.

It's probably just looking at all the options, and perhaps demonstrating that "investing" £30K in casino games might not be the smartest place for Joe Average's(*) money.

(*) not implying or suggesting that the OP is in any way average.

Sampong

I agree with you. Casino's are not the place for that cash.

Now, speaking of all things house edgy......

koru wrote: »

I'm sure I read somewhere that the return offered by football pools is much better than offered by the lottery or premium bonds. By return, I mean the amount paid out as winnings as a percentage of the amount paid in by punters. In other words, the cut taken by the football pools company is smaller than the cut taken by other types of gambling. I'm not sure how this compares with spread betting, however.

Without checking (caveat) I think you will find the amount of money retained by the lottery is massive, it wouldn't suprise me if it was 40-50% of what has been paid in by punters. I would also hazard a guess that the football pools are similair.

However you don't lose the money you invest with Premium Bonds as you do in the Lottery, Football Pools, or Blackjack. You deposit your money into National Savings and they enter your certificates into their draw in exachange for you putting your cash on deposit, which they will then invest as they do with deposited money from their other financial products.

However you can cash in your Premium Bonds anytime you want. Premium Bonds might not be such a bad idea, you could even do that while you decide what to do with your 30 g's.

innovate

Sampong wrote: »

Premium Bonds might not be such a bad idea, you could even do that while you decide what to do with your 30 g's.

Could do worse, I agree.

But could also do better than the average PB return, which is 1.5% AER. And that's just the average.....

I know someone who had the max in since late May and so far got 2 x £25 each in July, September and November. Something significant must happen before long for them to get to that 1.5% AER......I suppose there's always that million, lol.

gadgetmind

I'm very happy with the return from my growing portfolio of corporate bonds and preference shares. My yield on purchase price is still around 10% and I've had some great capital gains to date.

Of course, this has involved taking on (a lot!) more risk, but I even one or two total losses would still see my returns being way better than five year savings accounts.

rockitup

grey_gym_sock wrote: »

roulette might offer the best return from gambling ... the expected return is 36/37 = c. 97.3%

though that's european roulette ... american roulette wheels have an extra 0, which reduces the expected return to 36/38 = c. 94.7%

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roulette

That was an interesting wiki article on Roulette.

The total of all the numbers on the wheel are 666... bad omen that is! :eek::eek:

pqrdef

innovate wrote: »

I know someone who had the max in since late May and so far got 2 x £25 each in July, September and November. Something significant must happen before long for them to get to that 1.5% AER......I suppose there's always that million, lol.

With a maximum £30K in, you expect 15 prizes a year (odds of 1/24000 per number per month) - mostly £25 but with a good chance of a £50 and a much smaller chance of anything bigger. So a fairly steady approx 1.3% tax free (which now beats a Santander eSaver even for a basic rate taxpayer). The other 0.2% is what you gamble on the small chance of a bigger prize.

pqrdef

supo99 wrote: »

I have a sum of £30,000 to invest. I am looking to get the highest return as much as possible.

To double your money in 10 minutes, just put it on the evens favourite in the 3.30 at Lingfield. (Caution: there is some risk involved)

koru

Sampong wrote: »

I kind of missed where the thread changed from "best place to invest 30k" to a discussion about Casino Games.

Arguably, many types of "investment" are little different from gambling. As the OP is considering spread betting, it is not much of a jump to other forms of gambling.