Lotto even more chances for you to lose

My staff wanted to set up a syndicate. They badgered me to let them and I joined more out of solidarity than anything else. First week 12 of us won £2500. We stopped it there and then on the basis that we would never win again.
 
ianp5a said:
Im just amazed that people don't understand odds and throw their money away on a regular basis.
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The number of people who I see buying scratch cards amazes me. And on the rare occasion that they win something like £2 or £5, they buy more scratchcards with the winnings. Might as well just flush your money down the toilet!


Steve.
 
I used to play, until it went up to £2. At a 100% price increase I thought sod that, particularly as I had never really won much since the day it started, never played since. Now it's gone up by 10 numbers I just see it as more chance that the money I have saved was the best choice.

I do buy a few bonds now in place of the £1's I used to spend on lottery. Whilst the odds are still not brilliant at least the stake is not lost.

Edit - typo
 
jondc said:
I do buy a few bonds now in place of the £1's I used to spend on lottery. Whilst the odds are still not brilliant at least the stake is not lost.
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I suspect that a few more may well follow suit on that too!
 
Nod said:
Do you count a £1 as a win? Personally, I think that's just a failure to lose but does seem to count as a real win when they're claiming a ?% win chance. IIRC, one of the new "prizes" in the lotto is a free lucky dip, so a small chance of any real win again.
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I count it as breaking even, but I've had instances where I've bought one after the other about 3 times and had a small win on every one, got £10 on a dual game £1 card last week.

:-)
 
And over the time you've been playing, how much do you think you're up. And how much are you really down?
 
Nod said:
And over the time you've been playing, how much do you think you're up. And how much are you really down?
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I guess I'm probably a few quid down, but I only play when the prizes are "obscene" And I'm feeling lucky :D
 
I got my first win in ages last night - £25. Think I'll give up now.
 
i wonder how many people on here saying its a waste of money have spent thousands on cigarettes
 
steunited said:
i wonder how many people on here saying its a waste of money have spent thousands on cigarettes
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:wave:

But you could also say the same about alcohol, or anything else that people enjoy, for no reward, just the pleasure of doing it, taking part in it etc.
 
steunited said:
i wonder how many people on here saying its a waste of money have spent thousands on cigarettes
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Or sex ;) or anything.

The chance to win something truly life changing is pretty powerful. And someone will win it.
 
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steunited said:
i wonder how many people on here saying its a waste of money have spent thousands on cigarettes
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No one spends money on cigarettes in the expectation of financial gain.
 
dejongj said:
:) not everything, unless I'm missing something but not playing doesn't increase your chance of winning. Surely it reduces? Doesn't it not?
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Ever seen Wargames?

The best way to win a game is not to play in the first place.

:-)
 
Rob 80386 said:
Ever seen Wargames?

The best way to win a game is not to play in the first place.

:)
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I have but how does that work in relation to the lottery?
 
dejongj said:
I have but how does that work in relation to the lottery?
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The lottery is a small risk high reward game, essentially you place a bet on your chosen line of numbers being drawn from the machine, the more combinations you buy, you up your odds of winning, however your odds of loosing are a more likely outcome, by not staking your money in the first place, you're not taking that chance and over time this will add up, best way to see this is to put the money you would normally spend each week on the lotto into a tin, at the end of the month/year count it up, that's how much you saved by not playing, check the results too, then you'll see just how much you are "up" by.
 
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Unless of course you would have won the jackpot, in which case you're down by several million.
 
Funny enough i saw my lotto winning friend yesterday, gave me a hoot in his new BMW m6 motor. Wouldn't be my first choice if i had £2.6m in the bank but each to there own :)
 
StewartR said:
My previous boss had this on his office wall. It tells you everything you need to know about lotteries.

http://dilbert.com/strip/1994-04-08
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dejongj said:
:) not everything, unless I'm missing something but not playing doesn't increase your chance of winning. Surely it reduces? Doesn't it not?
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I suspect you may be missing something. The numbers in the example below have been rounded for simplicity.
  • "Normal" lottery ticket: costs £2, chance of winning = 1 in 10 million
  • "Value" lottery ticket: costs £1, chance of winning = 0 in 10 million
 
StewartR said:
I suspect you may be missing something. The numbers in the example below have been rounded for simplicity.
  • "Normal" lottery ticket: costs £2, chance of winning = 1 in 10 million
  • "Value" lottery ticket: costs £1, chance of winning = 0 in 10 million
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Which is exactly my point ;)
 
StewartR said:
I suspect you may be missing something. The numbers in the example below have been rounded for simplicity.
  • "Normal" lottery ticket: costs £2, chance of winning = 1 in 10 million
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That's just risen to 1 in approx 45 million IIRC. :eek:
(It was previously 1 in 13.9 million).
 
viv1969 said:
That's just risen to 1 in approx 45 million IIRC. :eek:
(It was previously 1 in 13.9 million).
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Yeah, but the cartoon was drawn in 1994 by somebody who doesn't live in this country, so I think we can cut him a bit of slack when it comes to the numbers he used.
 
StewartR said:
Yeah, but the cartoon was drawn in 1994 by somebody who doesn't live in this country, so I think we can cut him a bit of slack when it comes to the numbers he used.
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Feeble excuse :lol: ;)
 
OK I don't get it, I've just seen that tonight its a double roll over @ 12.6 million.
Its never been that high before ( AFAIK)
A double is usually around 3-4 million.
So I guess they have lessened the chances of a win, but increased the carrot to make more people lose their money.
You gotta hand it to 'em ;)
 
The estimated jackpot is often an exaggeration. Some of the Wednesday draws have barely scraped over a million but estimated jackpot is always quoted at 2 million. Saturday draws are usually estimated at 5 million but often barely get over 4. One of the summer Wednesdays wasn't even a million and two people won that.

It's not been that high as a double for years. Last one near that was May and that was about 4 times not won. The results checker with the prize breakdown shows just how dismal the prizes are.

When it first started the jackpots were always 8-10 million. You need about double that just to keep up with inflation now.

I'll stick with not winning Euromillions. Much bigger jackpots to not win ;)
 
srichards said:
I'll stick with not winning Euromillions. Much bigger jackpots to not win ;)
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Me too, but they have been pretty poor too recently :(
 
srichards said:
I don't know where you check Euromillions history with jackpots in Euros.
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I get an email most weeks telling me what the jackpot is.
By poor I mean around 20 odd million.
I dont play until it hits around the 75 million mark, which it doesn't seem to have done in quite awhile,
some b****r keeps wining the lower amounts :( :D
 
Get 2 jars. In jar 1, put everything you win. In jar 2, put the same amount as you stake. I wonder which jar MOST people will have more cash in after a year.
 
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