Are you a lottery dupe?

[661-Pete]

I suppose - if you find a sufficiently cooperative bookie - you could make a side-bet against your numbers winning. Though I rather suspect you'd get very short odds!

If you double your stake after you lose the side-bet (i.e. win the 'virtual' lottery), you'd be playing a well-known system known as the 'martingale' (despite not being a gambler myself, I know one or two things about gambling systems ) which is sometimes used by punters gambling against short odds (no good for the normal lottery, however).

[Cunobelin]

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.

We had a guy at work who calculated that if you bought a ticket just after closing, to give you a full week then you were more likely to die before the next Saturday draw than you were to win any form of jackpot

[661-Pete]

Didn't someone calculate that you're more likely to be struck by lightning...?

[[XAP]Bob]

Didn't someone calculate that you're more likely to be struck by lightning...?

IIRC when the lottery started that I worked out that you shouldn't buy a ticket before Friday night - because you are more likely to get hit by a bus before the draw than to win...

[Mick F]

I've never bought one.
Mrs Mick F used to buy one back when it first started. She won a tenner once.

[661-Pete]

I think this thread's worth a bump.

Seems Theresa's lost herself yet another minister, over the Gov's prevarication on cutting the FOBT limits. Not really surprised, considering how unprincipled the powers-that-be are....

But glad to hear that at least one Tory minister has got principles. Good for her!

[Cyril Haearn]

Maybe she was the only one, there are none left now

Maybe she is jockeying for position to succeed Chairperson May and lead the UK back into the EU. One hopes so

[Bonefishblues]

I think this thread's worth a bump.

Seems Theresa's lost herself yet another minister, over the Gov's prevarication on cutting the FOBT limits. Not really surprised, considering how unprincipled the powers-that-be are....

But glad to hear that at least one Tory minister has got principles. Good for her!

OTOH it's a £98 cut over the previous statutory limit and it's only 6 months extra to allow an industry to better mitigate its effects, which as you might understand are very significant.

Remember also that the odds are fixed (FOBT, see!) such that the bettor receives on average 98p+ back from every pound they stake.

Not defending, but giving additional perspective.

[661-Pete]

Remember also that the odds are fixed (FOBT, see!) such that the bettor receives on average 98p+ back from every pound they stake.

Don't follow you: whether the 'odds' are fixed or not, it's still a game of chance. The odds on Schrödinger's cat's survival are fixed too - but the cat may still die....

[al_yrpal]

If they bring in those restrictions on the machines the compulsives will move online. Its a terrible sickness. Some time ago I scrapped the lottery and never contribute to anything like it. This leaves more cash to go direct to good causes.

Al

[Cunobelin]

Often thought about buying a ticket but never have. Funny thing is that, at the end of the year, all the money I saved on not buying tickets doesn't magically turn up in my pocket.

My stance is similar.

For the average person this will be a loss or break even.

So...... give a trusted friend or partner your £5 a week and ask them to return it at random intervals. That way you get thrill of a "windfall" as well as not losing out to a fraud

[Bonefishblues]

I am not a supporter of FOBTs as they currently are, BTW - I was in the industry, but left in part do to my discomfort with them and the behaviours they were driving.

What does puzzle me is that by the measure of every survey, alcohol is significantly more addictive than betting, yet we bemoan the loss of pubs whilst railing against the pariah of the High Street - the betting shop. Just saying...

[661-Pete]

What does puzzle me is that by the measure of every survey, alcohol is significantly more addictive than betting, yet we bemoan the loss of pubs whilst railing against the pariah of the High Street - the betting shop. Just saying...

You have a point.

There are certainly some pubs the loss of which I would not bemoan. These are generally city-centre drinking dens which clientele only frequent in order to get blind drunk. Having too many pubs close together, thereby fuelling the 'pub crawl', is also not a good idea...

I welcome, of course, the presence of pubs which stand as a convenient lunch spot, and a decent alternative to the motorway service area. Alas! it is these pubs that are largely disappearing. The saddest recent loss in our area, was a rural pub which staged an 'orrible murder - back in 1734! Now demolished and replaced by housing. Jacob's Post, a small monument commemorating the deed, is still standing, though...

[cyclemad]

I won last month...new car on the way ......yaaaaaaaaay.

you've got to be in it to in it !!

[meic]

If I had put the lottery money away every week since I bought my last car, I would have saved enough to buy my present car!
That is if the tickets cost £1 each.