[article] Scratch Card Fever!

mike65

Seen this?

www.unison.ie

A MAN who spent up to £400,000 (€508,000) on National Lottery scratch cards without success and threatened to take his shotgun to Dublin to collect winnings he believed he was owed yesterday apologised for his actions.

John Kelly, a single man in his late 30s from Ballinastuckan, Corofin, Co Galway is seeing a psychiatrist over his gambling and panic attack problems, Tuam District Court was told.

Kelly estimated he had spent up to £400,000 over the years buying the scratch cards, but never got more than £25 (€31.75), or three stars.

He believed the National Lottery should give him €60,000.

On August 8, 2003 he had phoned the Lottery offices and informed staff there that he was on his way to Dublin with a shotgun to collect the money he believed he was owed.

Gardai in Store Street alerted Tuam gardai and they spoke to Kelly and confiscated his shotgun.

When interviewed by Sgt Joe Cosgrove, Kelly said that he had been buying scratch cards for years and felt that the National Lottery owed him a lot of money.

In evidence at a previous court hearing, Malachy Minehan of the National Lottery said that he had taken calls from Kelly since early 2002 and he had always given his name.

He only took the matter seriously when the shotgun was mentioned.

The calls had been coming in to the National Lottery offices at the rate of two or three a day and officials had even met with Kelly on one occasion to discuss his complaints.

They had advised him to stop buying the scratch cards, sent him documentation outlining the odds against winning and offered him professional help.

Defending solicitor Karen Hughes said her client seemed to have taken the National Lottery slogan "It could be You" seriously, believing that it could indeed be him.

He had become hooked on the scratch cards and became frustrated when all he ever got was three stars.

He was a hard-working man who did not drink alcohol and had never before been in trouble.

Kelly had told the court that he had been spending up to €400 a week on the scratch cards. He admitted that his actions had been foolish.

While he informed Judge Mary Fahy that he believed he was over his gambling addiction, the judge decided to adjourn the case until yesterday for Probation Service and psychiatric reports.

Judge Fahy said that it appeared from the Probation report that, while he had availed of counselling for buying the scratch cards, he still seemed to be under the impression that the National Lottery owed him money.

Kelly told the judge that he had now "seen the light" and agreed that the National Lottery did not owe him any money. He admitted contacting the Lottery offices since his last court appearance, but this had only been in respect of the media publicity about the case.

He apologised for what he had done.

After reading the psychiatric report, Judge Fahy noted that he would be attending a facility as an outpatient. While he had said that he had no intention of carrying out his threat, the court had to take the matter seriously because he had the means to carry it out.

She noted that his shotgun licence had been suspended and that he was not addicted to any other form of gambling. As he had no previous convictions, she applied the Probation Act.

Brian McDonald

KdjaCL

LOL poor bastard i buy one and a free one on the free one i get 2 euro, i get 2 cards one is usually free then it goes on and on and on ,right now i have one for 10 in my pocket which i will buy 10 with.
Won 50 before and got 50 cards ,wont 257 on them that little thing ran for years.
Wonder if i got the 5000 would i really ask for 5000 cards.....

kdjac

sceptre

I think I've bought five cards or so ever. I once won four quid[1].

If John Kelly from Tuam did nothing else yesterday (and apart from his court appearance he probably didn't), it's confirmed my reluctance to buy the things ever.


[1]Made a few grand in the bookies in 1996 on the lotto though. Saved me getting an actual job in fourth year. Kindly don't mention Poisson distributions

AdMMM

I won €25 once

Spunog UIE

i always get them as pressies, for yrs now, and I always win on them :S, say i've won over 300 squid easy. Most common is free ticket or 2 quid tho, got a few 25's etc and good few stars.

Makaveli

Very rarely buy scratch cards.
But, because I work in a shop, I decided to try something out one day. In a book of cards roughly one every 6 or 7 is a winner.
So they were all new books at the time, and me being bored out of mind on the tills began counting which ones were sold. Most of the people that buy them are coming from the pub across the road, so if they win on one they come straight back.
Anyway, I'd wait til about 5 or 6 were sold and then buy the next one. In the end I made about €25 or so and had a few three stars cards.
Havent done it since though, it's too much effort trying to keep account of all cards sold.

mike65

Originally posted by Makaveli

Anyway, I'd wait til about 5 or 6 were sold and then buy the next one. In the end I made about €25 or so and had a few three stars cards.
Havent done it since though, it's too much effort trying to keep account of all cards sold.

They're clearly paying you too much! I'd have notebook and pen to hand.

Mike.

DEmeant0r

Poor guy, spending so much for so little.
I once recieved two scratch cards for my birthday (what a cheap and non-thoughful present!), and I won £60 from it, one with £40 and the other £20. It was either birthday luck or there was some sort of conspiracy.