Lottery

Caporegime
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Sem said:
i want to sleep all day and not have to worry about bills
i want a big house with a garage full of super cars
i want to sleep with models and page 3 girls
i want to wear expensive clothes and have loads of jewelry

Your life is destined to be deeply fulfilling.
 
Wise Guy
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stoofa said:
.....

As for putting the money in fruit machines instead...
£1 gamble on the lottery - random numbers, chance of winning a few million.
£1 gamble on fruit machines - random numbers, chance of winning a few hundred
Well, while I agree with your comments overall, that remark does omit to mention rather different odds on those random numbers, focussing on rather different payouts.
 
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stoofa said:
What is wrong with doing the lottery?
Sure your chances of actually winning the top prize is low - however it is infinitely lower if you don't actually buy any tickets.
A common argument, to be sure, but a stupid one. Your expected return on a £1 lottery ticket is something like 40p, so every time you buy a lottery ticket you lose 60p - on average. If you put a fiver on the lottery every week, you're throwing away £3 a week, or £150 per year. Someone who doesn't play the lottery at all is staying level. Sure, you've got to be in it to win it. But you've also got to be in it to throw away your money, and that's a MUCH more common outcome.

Do you consider things like house insurance a similar "not really worth it gamble"?
I mean I've never ever had the need to claim on either buildings or contents insurance - so over all those years I've just been wasting money.
Not quite. With house insurance your expected return is MUCH closer to your initial outlay. An insurance company whose premiums were 150% above the expected payouts would soon go bust. Also, when you buy house insurance you're buying peace of mind. For the outlay of £X per year you have the security of knowing that even if someone does break into your house and steal your expensive stuff, you'll be covered. Most people would think that that's definitely worth it. So even though you lose money on average when you buy insurance, you gain something that most people think is more valuable.

If you get actual, tangible enjoyment from playing the lottery then that's fine. Your £1 ticket is buying you a tiny chance to win a big prize, and it's also buying you some entertainment. However, if you're only buying a lottery ticket because you have dreams of being rich (and I think a lot of people are) then you're being stupid.

As for putting the money in fruit machines instead...
£1 gamble on the lottery - random numbers, chance of winning a few million.
£1 gamble on fruit machines - random numbers, chance of winning a few hundred
As Sequoia points out (much more level-headedly than I would be able to manage!) this is completely meaningless without some mention of the odds. It's also rendered pointless by the fact that there are people who consistently win money on fruit machines by playing skillfully. No one can do that with the lottery.
 
Soldato
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Arcade Fire said:
However, if you're only buying a lottery ticket because you have dreams of being rich (and I think a lot of people are) then you're being stupid.
What's wrong with dreaming you were rich?

I think most people accept it as a bit of fun and there's a chance (however small) that you could win a life changing amount of money, I don't have a problem with putting a £1 a week on the lottery. I wonder if the people wailing over it being a waste of money go out drinking alcohol (an even bigger waste of money in my opinion) on a regular basis?
 
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I have never once bought a lottery ticket, sure I have dreams of living comfortably when I am older, and hopefully having no financial stresses, but in reality the liklihood of this happening aren't too high! As are the chances of me winning the lottery. I think I will do the lottery one day maybe, if I feel lucky on a whim, but I wouldnt want to become addicted to it.

My friends advice to me was do the lucky dip because if u pick a set of numbers to use, u will carry on to use those numbers in fright that if you dont they will come up.

I would rather earn my money, and work hard for it, but then if I won a few million then I certainly wouldnt complain and could buy a lot of things that could in the future help me stay stable/help my career.

Fruit machines are a waste of time imo unless you are skillfull and know what you are doing, I see people at my pub inserting pound after pound after pound, winning £10 then putting it back in again, it seems pointless to me.
 
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Mr Joshua said:
What's wrong with dreaming you were rich?

I think most people accept it as a bit of fun and there's a chance (however small) that you could win a life changing amount of money, I don't have a problem with putting a £1 a week on the lottery. I wonder if the people wailing over it being a waste of money go out drinking alcohol (an even bigger waste of money in my opinion) on a regular basis?
Did you even read my post? There's nothing wrong with playing the lottery IF you view it as a bit of fun. When you stop viewing it as a laugh and you actually think that you're going to get rich from it, THEN you're being stupid.
 
Soldato
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Yes I did read your post and it was this part that I quoted
Arcade Fire said:
However, if you're only buying a lottery ticket because you have dreams of being rich (and I think a lot of people are) then you're being stupid.
I play the lottery with a dream of being rich, I don't expect it but by your definition that makes me stupid.
 
Associate
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Some interesting facts:

Odds on winning a prize from the lotto according to Wiki:

Match Prize Odds of winning
3 numbers £10 1: 57
4 numbers 22% of remaining fund 1: 1,033
5 numbers 10% of remaining fund 1: 55,492
5 numbers and bonus ball 16% of remaining fund 1: 2,330,636
6 numbers 52% of remaining fund 1: 13,983,816

The odds of you being hit by a city smasher meteor during your life time (ie, a meteor big enough to obiliterate around quarter of a million people) is around 750: 1.

Want to know your odds of getting hit by lightning during a year?
Approximately: 576,000 to 1

The odds SUCK.

For the record I have never played the lottery, to poor :)
 
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Marius said:
Some interesting facts:


The odds of you being hit by a city smasher meteor during your life time (ie, a meteor big enough to obiliterate around quarter of a million people) is around 750: 1.

I'm scared!
 
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