Why it is no longer worth playing the Lotto ?

robatwork

I wonder if we would live in a better world if there wasn't any gambling...

dealer_wins

robatwork wrote: »

i wonder if we would live in a better world if there wasn't any gambling...

no :d:d:d

daytona0

robatwork wrote: »

I wonder if we would live in a better world if there wasn't any gambling...

Define "gambling"....

Because you can be 'gambling with your health' by smoking too much or over-indulging in alcohol/food.

You could also be 'gambling with your life' by deciding to overtake a motorbike at high speed on a wet surface, or by running across the road to dodge a car when the road would be quieter a minute later.

Gambling is everywhere.

The world probably would be a better place without it, but for the sake of 5x £2 lottery draws a week I certainly won't be giving that aspect much more thought

George_Michael

daytona0 wrote: »

Gambling is everywhere.

The world probably would be a better place without it

But without gambling, the world as we know it wouldn't exist.
People wouldn't be able to buy shares in a company hoping for a price rise, there would be no commodities trading, no stock market and if there are no stocks and shares, that means nowhere for financial institutions to invest money obtained from savings accounts, pension contributions etc.

Malthusian

Those things aren't gambling.

Gambling loses you money on average, those things you listed make money.

George_Michael

Malthusian wrote: »

Those things aren't gambling.

Gambling loses you money on average, those things you listed make money.

I agree that if you buy shares to get a dividend payment then it is an investment as you often get a guaranteed return but if you buy shares in the hope that the value rises you are gambling on this.
Many people buy stocks and shares in the hope that they will rise in value which they do a lot of the time but they can and do often fall as well.
Try telling people who bought gold when it was £1000 an ounce or Shell petroleum shares when they were £25 that they weren't gambling with their money.

If stocks, shares, commodity trading etc were not gambling, why are there always winners and losers in the financial markets?

robatwork

I meant gambling as in what you can do in a betting shop/casino. So slots, horses, poker for money.

I realise some sports would disappear overnight, like horse and greyhound racing, boxing too.

Not sure the world wouldn't be a better place without them.

But I was just taking a flight of philosophical fancy, I occasionally gamble. And gambol too.

Malthusian

The main advantage with the Lotto/Euro is that it allows you to dream - what would do if you did win.

Just going to leave this here...

Lotteries: A Waste of Hope

Consider exactly what this implies. It would mean that you're occupying your valuable brain with a fantasy whose real probability is nearly zero—a tiny line of likelihood which you, yourself, can do nothing to realize. The lottery balls will decide your future. The fantasy is of wealth that arrives without effort—without conscientiousness, learning, charisma, or even patience.

Which makes the lottery another kind of sink: a sink of emotional energy. It encourages people to invest their dreams, their hopes for a better future, into an infinitesimal probability. If not for the lottery, maybe they would fantasize about going to technical school, or opening their own business, or getting a promotion at work—things they might be able to actually do. Their dreaming brains might, in the 20th visualization of the pleasant fantasy, notice a way to really do it. Isn't that what dreams and brains are for?

mjm3346

daytona0 wrote: »

https://www.national-lottery.co.uk/lotto-changes#New-prize-structure

Jackpot = 1 in 45 million (from 1 in 14 million)

3 balls = 1 in 97 (from 1 in 57)

2 balls = 1 in 10.3 (just under 10%)

Overall chance to win = 1 in 9 (from 1 in 54)

Odds to become millionaire = 1 in 10 million (from 1 in 14 million)



The last one, for me, is the key one....

But if you spent £2 on the original National Lottery the odds to become a millionaire were even better at 1 in 7 million (2 in 14 million)

daytona0

mjm3346 wrote: »

But if you spent £2 on the original National Lottery the odds to become a millionaire were even better at 1 in 7 million (2 in 14 million)

Fair enough, I was just reading off the site (the link provided)