Playing the national lottery - why wouldn't you?

[JaredVannett]

You see the same articles in the news often... "Dave and Sheila from {some underprivileged town} won the jackpot" followed by a photo of them both clinking glasses of champagne.

Is it me or is there some sort of stigma attached to lottery players?

To see what I mean, check out the lottery's latest ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vq2ewxSn_yQ


From a risk/reward perspective, would it not be reasonable to suggest there is massive upside for little cost.... £2.50 a line, we're talking less than lunch here. You would probably need to be sensible of course with how much you spend, but wouldn't a cheeky bet now and again would be reasonable (eg. £10 a month)?

Do any of you allocate a small budget per month to play?

[paulrockliffe]

If I told you I'm going to sneeze once in my entire life time and if you guess exactly which second I'll sneeze you can have a million quid, would you be confident of receiving a million quid?

[Butter Face]

Just heard today that a chap I worked with (on here too) has just won some decent money, don't know how much but a decent enough amount.

Lucky git

[JaredVannett]

paulrockliffe said:

If I told you I'm going to sneeze once in my entire life time and if you guess exactly which second I'll sneeze you can have a million quid, would you be confident of receiving a million quid?

What is the opportunity cost for me to give my answer?

A few seconds?

[JaredVannett]

Butter Face said:

Just heard today that a chap I worked with (on here too) has just won some decent money, don't know how much but a decent enough amount.

Lucky git

Scratchcard?

[deckster]

JaredVannett said:

paulrockliffe said:

If I told you I'm going to sneeze once in my entire life time and if you guess exactly which second I'll sneeze you can have a million quid, would you be confident of receiving a million quid?

What is the opportunity cost for me to give my answer?

A few seconds?

You have to give me a pound a week for the privilege of guessing.

[dieselgrunt]

i once tried a lottery simulator that gave me 6 lines in a draw 3 times a week. I left it running. After 195,000 years i had still not matched 5 numbers, let alone 6. At that point i stopped it. That brought home to me how massive the odds are at winning a lottery jackpot

[Trophy Husband]

A guy that works for me had two wins in two months, both in the high hundreds of thousands. He's now very comfortable, owns half a dozen BTL properties and still drives my digger like he always did. It could be you!!

[Saleen836]

JaredVannett said:

Butter Face said:

Just heard today that a chap I worked with (on here too) has just won some decent money, don't know how much but a decent enough amount.

Lucky git

Scratchcard?

Deputy manager of my local won a 6 figure sum on a scratch card a few years ago, moved back to Turkey and opened a restaurant!

[eybic]

The chance of winning is minute but there's a chance, I guess that's why most people do it, the old adage of gotta be in it to win it rings very true here.

[JaredVannett]

deckster said:

You have to give me a pound a week for the privilege of guessing.

dieselgrunt said:

i once tried a lottery simulator that gave me 6 lines in a draw 3 times a week. I left it running. After 195,000 years i had still not matched 5 numbers, let alone 6. At that point i stopped it. That brought home to me how massive the odds are at winning a lottery jackpot

Will give that a go for fun - I have a raspberry pi on the shelf.

I worked with a DBA a few years ago, who did similar simulations. He said according to his calculations £50,000 of lines would provide him with the best risk/reward ratio when you include the sub-prizes (matching most balls). Now whether he would actually do that if I gave him £50k in his hands is another question all together!

[Jimmy Recard]

Trophy Husband said:

A guy that works for me had two wins in two months, both in the high hundreds of thousands. He's now very comfortable, owns half a dozen BTL properties and still drives my digger like he always did. It could be you!!

And then there’s my mate’s dad who won 9 million, left his family, turned to drink and maybe drugs and was dead shortly later

Of course, I think that only a certain type of person would let that happen to them

[dieselgrunt]

here's an online one i found:

https://www.cuandomevaatocar.com/en/euromillions/s...

[99dndd]

I do each Euromillions draw. £5 a week, lucky dip, paid for by Direct Debit.

At worst, I can spend a few minutes daydreaming about what I'd spend the jackpot on.

At best...

[Dan_1981]

dieselgrunt said:

i once tried a lottery simulator that gave me 6 lines in a draw 3 times a week. I left it running. After 195,000 years i had still not matched 5 numbers, let alone 6. At that point i stopped it. That brought home to me how massive the odds are at winning a lottery jackpot

That's fairly unlucky isn't it?

3 draws per week, 52 weeks, in year, 195000 years and 6 lines per draw = 182,520,000 entries.

Aren't the odds of the Lottery something like 14m to 1 - or they were originally before they fked around with everything.

Maybe i don't understand odds....

[Butter Face]

99dndd said:

I do each Euromillions draw. £5 a week, lucky dip, paid for by Direct Debit.

At worst, I can spend a few minutes daydreaming about what I'd spend the jackpot on.

At best...

I do the same, won £2100ish a few months back, booked a holiday which was decent. I suppose I do spend £260 a year so the way I look at it I'm still up at the moment.

[LeadFarmer]

I once got five numbers, received about £2,500

I was organised a syndicate at work, and the 6th number that we missed we actually got on the next line!!

Seeing as I was the syndicate organiser i had the cheque made out to me, and I colour photocopied it to keep, before cashing it.

[anonymous-user]

paulrockliffe said:

If I told you I'm going to sneeze once in my entire life time and if you guess exactly which second I'll sneeze you can have a million quid, would you be confident of receiving a million quid?

Exactly. Or another one: See if you can pick up precisely 5,000 grains of sand in one go. Only £1 a try and the prize is many millions of pounds.

If the maximum number you could hold is 20,000, the odds in this game of chance are very very considerably better than playing the lottery. Hard to imagine a long queue forming on a Saturday evening to play that one.

[anonymous-user]

JaredVannett said:

From a risk/reward perspective, would it not be reasonable to suggest there is massive potential upside for little cost....

Yes.

This is why you shouldn't waste time putting money into Premium Bonds.

Just put your money in a savings account at 1.5% and buy a lottery ticket from time to time.

[Simpo Two]

I don't do the lottery because I did statistics as an undergraduate.

PBs could do with a bit a zapping up both on the marketing and rewrad front but you can get your stake back if you don't win.

The sad thing about lotteries is that many tickets are bought by those who can least afford it in the vain hope it will pluck them from poverty. No, it will just make them poorer. Its main purpose it probably succour.