Are you a lottery dupe?

[Cyril Haearn]

Many people use birthday dates, one greatly increases ones chances by using numbers from 32 - 49

[Cunobelin]

Best bit of advice Its given when the latter started.

Give £1 a week to a friend who will give it back to you at random intervals

All the thrill of the lottery and you lose less money

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,

Many people use birthday dates, one greatly increases ones chances by using numbers from 32 - 49

More decreases the chances of sharing the money......

If you use birth dates etc then many......many others are too.....but limiting your choice may also limit your chances of winning as random numbers does not favour or discriminate birthdates.

Would you rather win 100K or lose 1Mil..................

[661-Pete]

Apart from, in the past, 'gambling' (badly) on where to stow my Pension pot - which isn't really gambling per se, more like taking 'advice' from an 'expert' which turns out to be not-so-good advice...

The only instances of me gambling with actual money that I can recall, are buying raffle tickets for charity (but I look upon that more as 'donating' rather than 'gambling' - indeed I never buy in the expectation of 'winning' or anything like that). And, in my youth, the occasional foray into the fruit machines down at the local (usually when encouraged by fellow-students). I think it would have been 6d a throw back then, and I probably went on until I'd lost half-a-crown or thereabouts....

I did, on the other hand, condescend to 'help out' some other fellow-students, who'd formed a syndicate on the Football Pools (anyone remember them?). Using my then computer-savvy, I offered to write a program that would generate eight pseudo-random numbers in the range 1 to 56 (or however many matches were on the coupon). I remember the others protesting loudly whenever the program churned out, say, three consecutive numbers. But I took pains to explain, that every selection is as 'random' as any other...

But I steadfastly refused to 'chip in' to their syndicate. And I don't recall whether they ever won anything. Certainly no jackpots....

[Cunobelin]

Apart from, in the past, 'gambling' (badly) on where to stow my Pension pot - which isn't really gambling per se, more like taking 'advice' from an 'expert' which turns out to be not-so-good advice...

The only instances of me gambling with actual money that I can recall, are buying raffle tickets for charity (but I look upon that more as 'donating' rather than 'gambling' - indeed I never buy in the expectation of 'winning' or anything like that). And, in my youth, the occasional foray into the fruit machines down at the local (usually when encouraged by fellow-students). I think it would have been 6d a throw back then, and I probably went on until I'd lost half-a-crown or thereabouts....

I did, on the other hand, condescend to 'help out' some other fellow-students, who'd formed a syndicate on the Football Pools (anyone remember them?). Using my then computer-savvy, I offered to write a program that would generate eight pseudo-random numbers in the range 1 to 56 (or however many matches were on the coupon). I remember the others protesting loudly whenever the program churned out, say, three consecutive numbers. But I took pains to explain, that every selection is as 'random' as any other...

But I steadfastly refused to 'chip in' to their syndicate. And I don't recall whether they ever won anything. Certainly no jackpots....

Remember a colleague who texted everyone that she had won the "Jackpot" on the lottery and was now a millionaire!

Shame there were about 150 others sharing the jackpot, and then there was the large syndicate she was in.

By Monday it was less than a thousand pounds that she was actually going to receive

[kwackers]

I remember someone talking about numbers to use on the lottery.

I told them to keep it simple and easy to remember so use; 1,2,3,4,5 & 6.
They said that was stupid as there was no way those would ever come up...

[Bonefishblues]

I remember someone talking about numbers to use on the lottery.

I told them to keep it simple and easy to remember so use; 1,2,3,4,5 & 6.
They said that was stupid as there was no way those would ever come up...

They probably are stupid because when they won they would be sharing the jackpot with thousands of others

[[XAP]Bob]

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

[Bonefishblues]

That would depend on whether the numbers conformed to any sort of pattern. If pattern, then lots and lots!

[kwackers]

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...

[661-Pete]

Remember a colleague who texted everyone that she had won the "Jackpot" on the lottery and was now a millionaire!

I've been a 'millionaire' - once, briefly.
Bad news is, it was during a trip to Indonesia. I'd just withdrawn about £60 worth from a cash machine: at that time the local currency, Indonesian Rupiahs, stood at about 18,000 Rp to the £. So that made me a millionaire - in Rupiahs!

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Would of been about 40 odd years ago we has our own works lottery machine, it supposedly churned out random number combination.
In the works canteen every Friday, don't remember ever buying a ticket tho.

[RickH]

Someone once suggested selecting a set of numbers but never buying a lottery ticket. Every week your numbers don't come up add £1 to your virtual balance. If they win a prize deduct it from your total. It is very unlikely that you will end up with a negative balance.

[mercalia]

Someone once suggested selecting a set of numbers but never buying a lottery ticket. Every week your numbers don't come up add £1 to your virtual balance. If they win a prize deduct it from your total. It is very unlikely that you will end up with a negative balance.

nice idea better put the money in a piggy bank and have a smug look at the end of the year?

[kwackers]

Someone once suggested selecting a set of numbers but never buying a lottery ticket. Every week your numbers don't come up add £1 to your virtual balance. If they win a prize deduct it from your total. It is very unlikely that you will end up with a negative balance.

Too much of a risk.
Suppose they came up big time? You'd never be happy again...

The few times I did the lottery right at the start I deliberately chose different random numbers every week that I'd never remember so that when I decided to stop I'd never worry that they might come up.

I think overall I'm quite happy with my giant bottle full of spare change. Same thing and with the added fun of counting it out when I finally get to empty it (it's 2/3rds full).
These days I only get to empty it about once every 5 years though, I just don't buy stuff cash anymore...