and they call poker gambling....

jimbling

did anyone see in the news yesterday about the lotto now been available on the internet and on your phone etc... now I don't do the lotto, but I have no problem with anyone who does... and good luck to all.

But what really gets to me is the government coming out saying that the lotto is not really gambling... this was the argument given on the last word yesterday when questioned about it. And yet they will come out against the online poker world.... imho its just because they can't make money out of it....

It gets to me because I get abuse from all sides about my playing poker etc... people think i have a gambling issue.... (most of my friends & family have no understanding of the game) and then you see the same people spending about 10 - 20 euros a week on lotto tickets.... lol...

basically... my opinion is that there is more gambling qualitys in the lotto than what there is in poker....

any opinions?

roryc

yeh I find that most people who criticise me for having a 'gambling problem' when it comes to playing poker, usually dont understand the game. These are the same people who bet on horses and sports and have lost a LOT more than i have in 'gambling'.

I don't really consider playing poker 'gambling'. I usually play roulette in the fitz if I want to gamble. Poker for me is a (usually) cheap 'hobby' which has the potential to make money

NickyOD

When I saw that one you could enter via text message (is it larry gogan who promotes it?) I was pretty horrified. Since every child over 12 has a mobile phone how exactly do you stop them playing?

Culchie

NickyOD wrote:

When I saw that one you could enter via text message (is it larry gogan who promotes it?) I was pretty horrified. Since every child over 12 has a mobile phone how exactly do you stop them playing?

Well, that advert with Larry Gogan is pretty terrifying, I don't blame you Nicky

Man, he is exactly the reason why the phrase " a face for radio " was invented ! :eek:

azzeretti

I agree, I was having the same conversation with two ballifs the other day about this, there were carrying my TV and DVD player out of the house and happened to bump into the repo-man from the bank - looking for the deeds of my house.
The three of them agreed that indeed poker is not a gamlbling game and trully is a game of skill, whereas the lotto.............

p.s Not sure if I can heap anymore sarcaism on this one

zonemelt

The odds of winning the lotto are 1:5,245,786 and the prize money is rarely over €5m so not only is the lotto gambling, you have to take the worst of it the majority of the time by a fair margin to be in with a chance...

hotspur

Well to be honest it's hard to get hooked on the lotto as a form of gambling because the pay off is so infrequent, and it only occurs twice a week. Sratch cards are another matter, but still it's a rare form of gambling problem. The worst forms of gambling for developing problems are actually not permitted in this country. Video Lottery Terminals, which are slot machine type setups, are machines all hooked up to a central server in which you can pay and pick 6 numbers and it's an instant lottery, thought obviously the prizes are far far smaller than our national lottery. It has causedmany problems in US, Canada, Australia, and N Zealand to name a few. Video poker is also very problematic, but you don't really see them in ireland anymore, and they are tightly regulated in terms of payout. Possibly the worst is the fixed odds terminals. They have them in other countries including UK. You can go into a bookies and play the machine which will offer things like roulette, it just eats your money and is very very addictive. At the end of the day poker is genuinely gambling for 95% of the players who play it, the other 5% are gambling too but in the way in which the Bellagio gambles, that is they are risking money but they have an edge in the odds which pays off in the long run. Good players are the house in poker. The truth is that for the very vast majority of players it is due to random fluctuation whether they win or lose in a session, though most poker players are in denial about that. I want to see the governement show some guts and put into practice the recommendations that were made when they formed a committee to look into gambling legislation and recommendations a couple of years ago. But they won't. This is because of their experience when there was the proposed big casino complex, um I can't remember where in Dublin a few years ago. They received a record number of complaints from puritan moralists over that, and they now won't took the issue of gambling with a bargepoll for political reasons. So we will continue to have ridiculous laws about casinos, and about gaming, which are circumvented by ridiculous loopholes about private members clubs, and issues of profit and rake.
Rob.

mcaul

The lotto pays out 42% of income in prize money

Bookies pay our 85% of income in winnings

Casinos pay out 95% of income in winnings. (Vegas average)


hmmm - which one offers the best value?????

MadsL

The odds of winning the lotto are 1:5,245,786

Therefore not gambling at all, rather a tax on stupidity.