Lottery is for losers (Is it worth playing the lottery?)

Member Name: sammyboy3

Product:	Is it worth playing the lottery?
Date:	25/11/08 (375 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: none

Disadvantages: Takes money the public

Wow first review on this subject!...This is a particular hobby horse of mine as i have often discussed with people that the English national lottery is not worth playing. These are the reasons why i think this:

1) the odds of winning the jackpot are 14,000,000 to 1

2) Even when a miracle happens and somebody does win they very rarely if ever receive the true odds amount i.e. 14 million pounds

3) People often justify playing by saying 'oh its only £1 a week and i can afford it', well thats the same psychology marketing firms use for useless extended warranties i.e. 'it only works out £1 or £2 a week' sounds peanuts....BUT by not playing the lottery since it started in novemebr 1994 i have saved myself approximately £728. In the difficult financial times which would you rather have done?

4) Then there is the excitement of 'playing' but after all these years who sits there on a Saturday night all excited thinking 'it could be me'? only the sad and deluded me thinks.

5) By contributing towards the lottery you probably have helped people like 'Mikey Carrol' he of the bling and many asbos and drag racing in his back garden become rich.

6) Your lottery money went towards the waste of time and money that was the millennium dome!

7) If you wish to give to charity, give it to charities that actually spend the money wisely and not government quangoes

8) I believe most people 'play' the lottery automactically now and don't even think about it...therefore negating the 'excitement factor'.

9) The massive advertising campaign actually 'brainwashed' people into believing it 'could' be them who won.

10) 12% of your lottery ticket goes to the government in tax (yet more tax for them on top of income tax, fuel tax, national insurance, stamp duty V.A.T etc etc) and 5% of lottery money goes towards making the camelot fat cats even richer.

11) Statistically you have more chance of being kicked to death by a donkey in Peru than winning the lottery.

12) It promotes gambling, need i say more here.

In summary, don't play the lottery give the money to a effective charity or something you enjoy that gives you value.

Summary: Don't play and you 'win' every week