Are you a lottery dupe?

[Debs]

Surely someone out there shares my aversion to gambling?

No?

It is a sad indictment of immoral Western cultural values that has not only created the benefactors that haphazardly produce a completely non deserved numpty winner, but also the sad glutinous wanting of such exorbitant winnings.

In a parallel universe; a far more advanced Earthly human race go about life in a caring sharing collective existence in peace and harmony, no rich no poor no want, and no need of luckless lotteries or speculative gambling, all bets are off.

i bet they don't have motons there either

[kwackers]

I gamble annually, last year I punted about £500 in total.
£100 on my house burning down, £100 on it being burgled and £300 on me wrecking my car or having it stolen.

I'm sure there may have been a few side bets too, like the occasional parcel going missing etc but I don't track those.

[jgurney]

I gamble annually, last year I punted about £500 in total.
£100 on my house burning down, £100 on it being burgled and £300 on me wrecking my car or having it stolen.

Insuring is the reverse of gambling. It is based on taking realistic precautions against unlikely events, while gambling involves unrealistic dependence upon them.

[francovendee]

Not for years. I was part of a syndicate when the lottery first started. £2 each and 10 people in it. We won £10 during the first year. I then saw the odds of winning a decent prize so gave up wasting my money. I saved it and put it into premium bonds and had two £50 wins in two years.
The charity side of the lottery seems a good idea but not sure the best choice of charity is made.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

I gamble annually, last year I punted about £500 in total.
£100 on my house burning down, £100 on it being burgled and £300 on me wrecking my car or having it stolen.

Insuring is the reverse of gambling. It is based on taking realistic precautions against unlikely events, while gambling involves unrealistic dependence upon them.

I dropped “accidental damage “ As I’ve never used it.
Why would anybody need it?

[Bonefishblues]

This chap was on World at One yesterday (c13.25, lest anyone wants to listen), and I was motivated to see if he'd written anything. He has. It's an interesting counterpoint, and has some perspectives that have a ring of truth.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2018/05/1 ... ral-panic/

[kwackers]

I gamble annually, last year I punted about £500 in total.
£100 on my house burning down, £100 on it being burgled and £300 on me wrecking my car or having it stolen.

Insuring is the reverse of gambling. It is based on taking realistic precautions against unlikely events, while gambling involves unrealistic dependence upon them.

I see where you're coming from but it's still gambling.
I punt my £100 on the house burning down and if it happens I win a new house! Chances are it won't but I live in hope.

Had I banked all that money I'd have had a tidy sum.
The only claims I've ever had on insurance is when someone nicked the wheels off my car (£700) and someone else danced on the roof of my car (£2000) but despite those I'd still be massively in pocked.

[Cunobelin]

If you knew (by time travel etc) what the numbers would be this weekend... how many tickets would you buy?

The assumption being that you didn't also know how many winners there would be?

May as well buy a decent wadge, say 50 tickets after all the money won't be an issue once you've won and any dilution is a large amount...

Homeopathic gambling?

[kwackers]

When I bought my current house, I decided I'd hang on to my old house and 'do it up' before flogging it.
Prior to moving out it cost me £80 a year for bricks and mortar, I moved out and thought I'd better insure it and the quotes I got back were typically £400 for periods of only a few months.
I decided not to bother, but I must admit to making sure nothing was smoking after I'd been plumbing or doing electrics and I never left blow torches, rechargeable tools or anything I thought was even remotely dangerous in the house when I left.

Thinking back it was actually quite stressful - took me two years on and off to do all the work too (although it increased the value of the house by £50k for a £10k spend so well worth it).

[Cunobelin]

I gamble annually, last year I punted about £500 in total.
£100 on my house burning down, £100 on it being burgled and £300 on me wrecking my car or having it stolen.

Insuring is the reverse of gambling. It is based on taking realistic precautions against unlikely events, while gambling involves unrealistic dependence upon them.

I see where you're coming from but it's still gambling.
I punt my £100 on the house burning down and if it happens I win a new house! Chances are it won't but I live in hope.

Had I banked all that money I'd have had a tidy sum.
The only claims I've ever had on insurance is when someone nicked the wheels off my car (£700) and someone else danced on the roof of my car (£2000) but despite those I'd still be massively in pocked.

Interestingly some Islamic interpretations consider insurance as unlawful

Car insurance is not permissible because it insures one against accidents involving others, and this kind of insurance comes under the heading of commercial insurance which is forbidden in sharee’ah, because it is based on uncertainty and consuming people’s wealth unlawfully.

All kinds of commercial insurance are clearly and undoubtedly ribaa (interest/usury). Insurance is the sale of money for money, of a greater or lesser amount, with a delay in one of the payments. It involves riba al-fadl (interest-based transaction) and riba al-nas’ (interest to be charged if payment is delayed beyond the due date), because the insurance companies take people’s money and promise to pay them more or less money when a specific accident against which insurance has been taken out happens. This is riba, and riba is forbidden in the Qur’aan, in many aayaat.

There is a compliant version of "insurance" called Takaful however

[Mick F]

Anyone who gambles must be aware that the bookie always wins.
One-arm bandits always win.
Littlewoods and Vernons always won.
National Lottery always wins, as does the Euro Lottery.

Mugs game.
Put the money you would gamble into a savings account instead.

[al_yrpal]

My Uncle Ernie was a self confessed compulsive gambler. He lived in Stratford East London. He told me that he had walked or thumbed back at least once from every racecourse and dog track within 50 miles of London. I have his philosophical musings, mostly written on government property toilet paper (he 'worked' for the Post Office) . His only claim to fame was when he was injured in the Old Baily bomb blast…… The betting shop window got blown in on him…

Al

[meic]

I gamble annually, last year I punted about £500 in total.
£100 on my house burning down, £100 on it being burgled and £300 on me wrecking my car or having it stolen.

I'm sure there may have been a few side bets too, like the occasional parcel going missing etc but I don't track those.

Isnt that really £300 bet on getting caught by plod for driving without.
More of paying a required fee than taking a gamble.

[Bonefishblues]

Anyone who gambles must be aware that the bookie always wins.
One-arm bandits always win.
Littlewoods and Vernons always won.
National Lottery always wins, as does the Euro Lottery.

Mugs game.
Put the money you would gamble into a savings account instead.

Not always, but they do work terribly hard to ensure that's the case, up to and including banning the particularly successful and sophisticated punter.

What people don't always appreciate is that the odds offered don't in any way represent the chance of an event occurring, rather they are the odds that the bookie has calculated will give them a return on their book.

[kwackers]

Isnt that really £300 bet on getting caught by plod for driving without.
More of paying a required fee than taking a gamble.

It was but as we head towards a future outside of Europe I'm rather thinking it'll be every man for himself so a tenner folded across my license when showing it to PC Plod will ensure my safe passage and a blind eye to my Mad Max lifestyle.