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National Lottery at Christmas.
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Comments
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gadgetmind wrote: »I've never bought one and never will.
Reasons -
1) Statistics say I will lose. Good enough for me.
2) If you want to be rich, do it the hard but achievable way by using your brain and working your socks off. The lottery did a lot of harm to the British "get off your backside" mentality IMO.
Um Statistics also say someone will win good enough for me.
I'm sure all the projects that benefit from the lottery don't think this of all the people who get of there backside to buy a ticket oh sorry forgot you don't!!!!.0 -
gadgetmind wrote: »Sheesh!
If you want millions, work for them! And the first step is to stop dreaming about the easy route.
Still bitter about that failed X factor audition then......0 -
Still bitter about that failed X factor audition then......
I'm more of a Krypton Factor kind of guy.I am not a financial adviser and neither do I play one on television. I might occasionally give bad advice but at least it's free.
Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.0 -
gadgetmind wrote: »Sheesh!
If you want millions, work for them! And the first step is to stop dreaming about the easy route.
I work extremely hard, but will never be rich enough to not have to worry about money.
If I want to play the odd line on the lottery now and again to give me that little ray of light that one day I may achieve this then I don't see any harm in that. I don't drink, or smoke so £2 every now and again is a treat I wont ever feel guilty about.0 -
Um Statistics also say someone will win good enough for me.
But they also say that it's very unlikely to be me, which is good enough for me.I'm sure all the projects that benefit from the lottery don't think this of all the people who get of there backside to buy a ticket oh sorry forgot you don't!!!!.
Sorry, but I can't even begin to parse that sentence, and I suspect it might even be three sentences flying in formation!
I see the lottery as being an entirely voluntary tax on stupidity, which suits me just fine.I am not a financial adviser and neither do I play one on television. I might occasionally give bad advice but at least it's free.
Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.0 -
Oh dear!, why have only sensible people replied?
Because you've asked in the "Savings & Investments" forum. Very few people here would consider putting money into something that provided only a slim chance of winning coupled to a near certainty of 100% loss of capital.I am not a financial adviser and neither do I play one on television. I might occasionally give bad advice but at least it's free.
Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.0 -
If you really want to do this sort of thing, just buy some premium bonds. Inflation vs return aside, you only have to enter it once, your money remains yours and you can have it back whenever you want.I am one of the Dogs of the Index.0
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Normally true, but not always. One such case was the Irish lottery on 16th April 1988. Wiki extract:gadgetmind wrote: »1) Statistics say I will lose. Good enough for me.At Lotto's initial cost of £0.50 per line, all possible combinations could be purchased for £973,896. ... A 28-member Dublin-based syndicate, organized and headed by Polish-Irish businessman Stefan Klincewicz, had spent six months preparing by marking combinations on almost a quarter of a million paper playslips. In the days before the drawing they tried to buy up all possible combinations and thus win all possible prizes, including the jackpot.
Nothing that the syndicate was doing was illegal... the National Lottery tried to foil Klincewicz's plan by limiting the number of tickets any single machine could sell, and by turning off the terminals his ticket purchasers were known to be using heavily. Despite its efforts, the syndicate did manage to buy over 80 percent of the combinations, spending an estimated £820,000 on tickets. It had the winning numbers on the night, but two other winning tickets were also sold, so the syndicate could claim only one-third of the jackpot, or £568,682. Match-5 and match-4 prizes brought the syndicate's total winnings to approximately £1,166,000, representing a profit of approximately £310,000 before expenses.
Even on the UK's National Lottery it should be possible too. This link is very old and the odds may have changed since then but the BBC reported:Mathematician Bill Hartston has worked out that an astute consortium buying £100,000 of tickets for every rollover could be in with a chance of making a "fair profit".0 -
Yes, I did think of mentioning these rare cases where the odds favour putting money in. I would buy a ticket at such times but only at such times.I am not a financial adviser and neither do I play one on television. I might occasionally give bad advice but at least it's free.
Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them.0 -
I'm amazed people in here are happy to play the stock market but not buy a lottery ticket! Seems like a dichotomy to me.
I made a new years resolution to start paying this year. I pay by direct debit, once a week. I've only won once, but it was about £130 quid which pretty much pays for itself.
It's only about £100 a year, not really very much. I've spend more than twice that on a meal out!0
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