Lotto to Rise to €6 - Are They Parasites?

gimli2112

the more I think about it the more I think I'm done. Started in 88 w=same numbers fearful no escape. ty Canada you've given me an out.

SEPT 23 1989

It's gone to sh1te since the Canadian pensioners bought it for a song

eurokev

I dunno why all the hate for people doing the lotto. I play it, it's just something I do with my father on a Saturday rotational basis for the last 12 or so years.
I'm neither poor or stupid, nor is my father thank God.
I have never won more than a few hundred but I have benefited from it massively throughout the years.
The local soccer club I grew up playing for was able to build two state of the art pitches and a new club house to replace our shipping containers.
The football club I played for were able to move away from using the facilities of their hurling club parochial neighbours, and build two pitches - a clubhouse and car park.
The aforementioned hurling club built a hurling wall and indoor hall.
The rowing club I was with were able to buy a few new boats and equipment and renovate the old dilapidated training hall.
All of this was either partially or wholly funded with national lottery funds. My childhood, adolescent and adult sporting enjoyment was massively impacted and improved thanks to the national lottery.
I've also just had a daughter who will benefit from these facilities as she grows.

So yeah, I'm probably down a couple of grand over the past decade from playing the lotto, but I am up an immeasurable amount besides.

And also my next door neighbor moved out a couple of months ago and sold up. Why??
Cause he won 500k on the lotto, was able to take early retirement, and built his dream house on a plot of land skirting the coast.

Some stupid eejits us

willowthewisp

somesoldiers wrote: »

The children’s film on RTE1 on a Saturday evening is sponsored by McDonalds and pauses 2/3 of the way through for the lotto draw!

I know gives me a great chance to check the number.

mikemac2

Aertel page 150

Does Aertel still exist?

Was very handy for checking the numbers

221 for the football scores too

emeldc

paleoperson wrote: »

I agree that it's a tax on the stupid, though I don't think that makes it ok or right in the slightest.

On the contrary - those people don't know any better and are being exploited and are probably those who need it the most. I dislike and don't trust people who say someone deserves such and such because they're stupid - at the end of the day they can't help being stupid, it's not a crime!

But if I can afford to lose a tenner a week then for me that’s entertainment. It doesn’t make me stupid.

Anyhoo, do you remember the old lotto crowd used to add a million quid for a bank holiday, mother’s day, Halloween etc. That all stopped when the new guys took over. I agree it’s a bit of a waste of money but so is smoking and look at the amount of money 'stupid' people spend on that.

normanoffside

Niles Crane wrote: »

The stupidest people of all are the idiots who think their opinion of the lotto being a tax on the stupid is somehow edgy and perceptive and the kind of thing that will make people think about not playing.

Pretty much everyone who plays the lotto knows it's a waste of money but there is always the chance it could happen and it provides a brief moment of fantasy in a persons life, you pay for the fantasy and escapism it provides not the chance of winning.

Unfortunately the lotto is pretty much the only opportunity to get rich quick without doing any work that exists.

It is a tax on the stupid because you pay for the worst odds in gambling.
I love a bet and have never put spent a penny on a lotto ticket on principle.

If you want to win a million, you have a way better chance going to the bookies and sticking a €1 bet on a 1,000,000/1 chance in a football accumulator (or similar). Bookies have about a 2% edge in odds where they make their profit. with the lotto the house wins 200-300% more than it pays out.

Dr Turk Turkelton

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Always great to see our government doing its utmost to facilitate the gambling industry. Out with the hope industry that is religion, in with the hope industry that is gambling. And despite the obvious social problems with problem gambling, all those health-warning free lottery ads on TV are allowed to peddle their fairy tales to eejits.

Reality check:

Odds of winning Euromillions: 1 in 140 million
Odds of winning Lotto: 1 in 10.7 million
Odds of being struck by lightning: 1 in 300 thousand

And how many otherwise rational people in our scientific age think, deep down, that they could win the lottery but never think about their far greater likelihood of being struck by lightning? I'd wager every single person who buys a ticket otherwise they wouldn't buy a ticket. It's that common human self-deception that Ernest Becker mentions in his great Denial of Death about the soldier in the WWI trench feeling sorry for the soldier next to him who's going to die!

I know two people who have won the irish lotto jackpot. I know zero people who have been hit by lightning?
Seems like witchcraft to me.

wonga77

The business I work in got a lotto machine some 3 years ago. I never imagined the extra traffic it would bring to the business. So many people hooked on it. So many that do the same numbers religiously with a fear of missing out.
The majority know they will win feck all but are just chancing their luck. But a small few think it's in their destiny to be jackpot winners.
I dunno, it's really changed my perception of things. There are quite a few people who I would consider addicted but because it's the lotto it's ok. If they were throwing down 60 70 odd euro on the horses then it would be seen very differently, that's what annoys me.
For the record i have found it's the 54321 that generates the most winners

PandaPoo

I sell these day in and day out at the front desk of a supermarket.. Some people clearly have a problem. One lady buys 2 of the €10 scratch cards every day. If she wins anything she will use that money to buy more.
Another lady spends €50 a week on various scratch cards.

A gentleman spends €42 a week on lotto and he won €50 a while ago and was delighted. I couldn't believe it.

They are all lovely people, I chat to them every day and get to know them. I assumed at first it was a syndicate or something but no.

r93kaey5p2izun

Dr Turk Turkelton wrote: »

I know two people who have won the irish lotto jackpot. I know zero people who have been hit by lightning?
Seems like witchcraft to me.

I was just thinking the same! I know three people who have won the Lotto and five who have won significant sums on the Euromillions. Never met anyone or heard of anyone struck by lightning. I wonder if the stat on lighting is based on worldwide incidents and is actually a much lower risk here where lightning isn't very common. I'm off to Google!

I've never done the lotto though as an individual (but have been part of a work syndicate that cost €20 per year). I assumed it was about €2 a pop. I'm surprised it's so popular at that price tbh. I don't think less of those who spend a few euro a week on it though.

AndrewJRenko

PandaPoo wrote: »

I sell these day in and day out at the front desk of a supermarket.. Some people clearly have a problem. One lady buys 2 of the €10 scratch cards every day. If she wins anything she will use that money to buy more.
Another lady spends €50 a week on various scratch cards.

A gentleman spends €42 a week on lotto and he won €50 a while ago and was delighted. I couldn't believe it.

They are all lovely people, I chat to them every day and get to know them. I assumed at first it was a syndicate or something but no.

That's worrying though not entirely surprising. Can they really afford to spend that money, or are they going without essentials to fund this?

normanoffside wrote: »

If you want to win a million, you have a way better chance going to the bookies and sticking a €1 bet on a 1,000,000/1 chance in a football accumulator (or similar). Bookies have about a 2% edge in odds where they make their profit. with the lotto the house wins 200-300% more than it pays out.

You seem to be missing the major benefit - knowing that half your spend is going to do something good, rather than just funding the bookie's drinking habit.

AllForIt

I used to do the euromillions regularly (not every draw) but when they put it up to 2.50 from 2 it really pissed me off such that I haven't done it for ages.

wonga77

AllForIt wrote: »

I used to do the euromillions regularly (not every draw) but when they put it up to 2.50 from 2 it really pissed me off such that I haven't done it for ages.

Its €3.50 these days

honeybear

wonga77 wrote: »

Its €3.50 these days

Is euromillions going up?

Wanderer78

Rent extraction, it's a good business, if you can get into it, easy money!

Screw the lotto. A few million nowadays doesn't even have the same allure as £1 million did in the 90s. I'm not paying 6 euro to have an almost zero chance to win an amount of money that just allows you to live comfortably for the rest of your life provided you are careful with it. Too many people are rich nowadays for it to feel as good as in the past and the absolute living standard of even the bottom 10% in terms of material comforts is so high that being richer than others around you isn't the same jump in absolute living standards it once was. Social media, internet etc. allowing us to see how rich others are and what their lifestyles are like has desensitised us to the whole notion of wealth too. You see it on winning streak and the like - people win 100 grand and theyre just happy, not ecstatic - such an amount just keeps the show on the road for them, because their expectations for living standards are so high and because the cost of housing, education, cars, insurance, weddings etc. are all so high. In the 90s if they won £30,000 they would have jumping around the room because they were genuinely more grateful for it and it felt like a much chunkier amount of money to win than even it's so called inflation-adjusted equivilant of today would feel if won today.

evolving_doors

For once I blame the teachers.

The pesky CANADIAN teachers .

http://www.thejournal.ie/new-lottery-operator-ireland-lotto-1336521-Feb2014/

evolving_doors

Spare a thought for those tied in to a syndicate.
It's like a cult you can't leave till you die. A few retired guys still pay in to ours at work.
Gives em an excuse to drop in and gloat every month though!

Squatter

Dr Turk Turkelton wrote: »

I know two people who have won the irish lotto jackpot. I know zero people who have been hit by lightning?
Seems like witchcraft to me.

I know only one. Although he won it twice!

https://www.independent.ie/business/irish/irelands-luckiest-man-sells-up-for-15m-26223982.html

He's also the only person in the world to have stuck his finger somewhere very intimate - shortly before he removed my appendix!

iguana

PandaPoo wrote: »

I sell these day in and day out at the front desk of a supermarket.. Some people clearly have a problem. One lady buys 2 of the €10 scratch cards every day. If she wins anything she will use that money to buy more.
Another lady spends €50 a week on various scratch cards.

A gentleman spends €42 a week on lotto and he won €50 a while ago and was delighted. I couldn't believe it.

They are all lovely people, I chat to them every day and get to know them. I assumed at first it was a syndicate or something but no.

My first job was in a Centra in the mid-90s and there were quite a few clear Lotto/scratch card addicts that came in regularly. There was one woman in particular who I'd be very surprised in her life wasn't eventually ruined by it.

She'd come in early in the morning with the kids on their way to school and she'd buy a scratch card or two. Sometimes she'd win a free card or £2, so she'd immediately change that for more. She'd be back in 20 minutes later after she'd dropped the kids off and she'd buy five-ten scratch cards. She'd do them there and then and immediately exchange any winning for more tickets. She could spend up to an hour in the shop exchanging her winnings for more tickets until eventually she had nothing. She'd usually be back in to do it all again around lunch time but would always be back in ahead of collecting her kids from school and again 20 minutes later once she'd collected them.

Throughout the afternoon she'd drive back with her kids in the car and buy more tickets. Often sending the kids into buy them and then getting distressed when we couldn't sell then to them. If I was on an evening shift, I'd see her in and out all night. Often being the last customer in at 11pm to buy a bunch of scratch cards. Once I added up everything she spent on Lotto products during my shift and from 8am-5pm (not counting my lunch hour) she spent £57 not including cards she bought from winnings. She almost never won anything that she kept, even if she won a bigger amount like £50-100, she'd leave with it but her ticket buying would ramp up over the next few days.

She's always stuck in my mind. Either her husband had an amazing salary or she had a large pot of savings/inheritance that she was squandering because she had to be spending £300-500 a week. In the 8 months I worked in the shop, I noticed that her children were becoming stressed by the scratchcard buying and they weren't witness to a fraction of it. I really hope that she managed to get a handle on the addiction because if she didn't, I couldn't see there being any happy outcome for her.

Cee-Jay-Cee

I stopped doing it completely after the last price hike. Up until then I had done it religiously every week since it started but their greed angered me and so I stopped completely. I do the euro millions the very odd time, maybe 3 or 4 times a year at most.

dxhound2005

Deleted User wrote: »

Screw the lotto. A few million nowadays doesn't even have the same allure as £1 million did in the 90s. I'm not paying 6 euro to have an almost zero chance to win an amount of money that just allows you to live comfortably for the rest of your life provided you are careful with it. Too many people are rich nowadays for it to feel as good as in the past and the absolute living standard of even the bottom 10% in terms of material comforts is so high that being richer than others around you isn't the same jump in absolute living standards it once was. Social media, internet etc. allowing us to see how rich others are and what their lifestyles are like has desensitised us to the whole notion of wealth too. You see it on winning streak and the like - people win 100 grand and theyre just happy, not ecstatic - such an amount just keeps the show on the road for them, because their expectations for living standards are so high and because the cost of housing, education, cars, insurance, weddings etc. are all so high. In the 90s if they won £30,000 they would have jumping around the room because they were genuinely more grateful for it and it felt like a much chunkier amount of money to win than even it's so called inflation-adjusted equivilant of today would feel if won today.

Do the Euromillions. If you win the jackpot you will be considerably richer than your neighbours, and that will make you feel better.

TheRiverman

The Lotto,a legalised scam ?.

dxhound2005

TheRiverman wrote: »

The Lotto,a legalised scam ?.

Not unless they are sending you e mails saying you have won, even though you never bought a ticket.

Tangatagamadda Chaddabinga Bonga Bungo

iguana wrote: »

My first job was in a Centra in the mid-90s and there were quite a few clear Lotto/scratch card addicts that came in regularly. There was one woman in particular who I'd be very surprised in her life wasn't eventually ruined by it.

She'd come in early in the morning with the kids on their way to school and she'd buy a scratch card or two. Sometimes she'd win a free card or £2, so she'd immediately change that for more. She'd be back in 20 minutes later after she'd dropped the kids off and she'd buy five-ten scratch cards. She'd do them there and then and immediately exchange any winning for more tickets. She could spend up to an hour in the shop exchanging her winnings for more tickets until eventually she had nothing. She'd usually be back in to do it all again around lunch time but would always be back in ahead of collecting her kids from school and again 20 minutes later once she'd collected them.

Throughout the afternoon she'd drive back with her kids in the car and buy more tickets. Often sending the kids into buy them and then getting distressed when we couldn't sell then to them. If I was on an evening shift, I'd see her in and out all night. Often being the last customer in at 11pm to buy a bunch of scratch cards. Once I added up everything she spent on Lotto products during my shift and from 8am-5pm (not counting my lunch hour) she spent £57 not including cards she bought from winnings. She almost never won anything that she kept, even if she won a bigger amount like £50-100, she'd leave with it but her ticket buying would ramp up over the next few days.

She's always stuck in my mind. Either her husband had an amazing salary or she had a large pot of savings/inheritance that she was squandering because she had to be spending £300-500 a week. In the 8 months I worked in the shop, I noticed that her children were becoming stressed by the scratchcard buying and they weren't witness to a fraction of it. I really hope that she managed to get a handle on the addiction because if she didn't, I couldn't see there being any happy outcome for her.

That's really sad. As an addiction it must truly suck, as you are never guaranteed a 'high'. Whereas if your an alcoholic and get a drink then you are happy. Or with pills or chocolate or whatever. But gambling addiction you are never sure when that next rush is coming, so people chase it much more desperately.

Deub

Turnipman wrote: »

You pay for a cup of coffee, and it's odds-on that you get a cup of coffee.

You pay for a ticket in the lottery and it's odds-on that you get nothing.

Not all that hard to work out which is the stupider transaction - even if one isn't particularly "smart and edgy."

I play your game: You pay 5 lotto tickets and you get some exictement of maybe winning.

You pay a packet of cigarettes and you get nothing except increasing the probabilty to get cancer.

Not all that hard to work out which is the stupuer transaction - even if one isn't particularly "smart and edgy."

I m sure you spend money on things that other people would think are stupid. I guess we all take satisfaction where we want.

CeilingFly

SEPT 23 1989 wrote: »

It's gone to sh1te since the Canadian pensioners bought it for a song

Bought it for a song??. I think they overpaid by quite a margin.

Not the best deal, though risk is low.

Gwynplaine

They need the money to pay for those non stop ads on telly and radio with the lad on the island.

Baron Kurtz

NIMAN wrote: »

Tax on the stupid.

Some dope always posts this, unfailingly. Well done. You're that guy this time.

Roger Mellie Man on the Telly

Deleted User wrote: »

Odds of winning Euromillions: 1 in 140 million
Odds of winning Lotto: 1 in 10.7 million
Odds of being struck by lightning: 1 in 300 thousand

So the odds of collecting the jackpot and being struck by lightning on the way to the bank are 10,700,000x300,000 = 1 in 3210000000000
I think so if I remember my maths probability calcs anyway.

irishgrover

I for one am glad that we have the lotto. There are not enough ****e media stories about scangers on welfare that we can comment on.... Feeling superior about oneself by commenting on the intellect of those that play the lotto fills that void nicely and thankfully avoids any uncomfortable self reflection on ones own value as individuals or indeed as members of a wider society or community

imme

Nobody is forced to play the lottery as others have said.

I do think that lottery piggy backers like Lottoland are parasites.
They don't give donations to charity as most lotteries do, they are chancers and parasites.