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People who waste their money on lottery products

Never Say Never Again

I saw a lot of oaps using their christmas bonus to buy several millionaire raffle tickets which cost €25 each. Should the national lottery have products that are so expensive? What happened to the days that a £2 scratch card was their most expensive item?

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Kintarō Hattori

Fr_Dougal wrote: »

The lottery is a tax on the poor, and the stupid.

Would you get away with that. The Lotto's tagline is brilliant: 'If you're not in, you can't win'. It's so true. I don't drink, smoke or put money on horses, football etc but the minimum amount I do per week makes me poor/a mug? So long as you don't have the expectation that you'll win and so long as you don't spend much on it I really see no harm in doing the Lotto.

c_man

Permabear wrote: »

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You sure about those odds chief? I mean people can and do win the Euromillions, but I think there's only been one recorded death by asteroid.

Actually how much are lotto tickets nowadays?

s15r330

Permabear wrote: »

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Your last phrase says it all.
Somebody does have to win!

NIMAN

Its a tax on the thick.

[Deleted User]

Permabear wrote: »

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That's all fine if people are expecting to win millions on the lotto, but what if they're hoping to win a few grand instead?

My dad has won twice. The first time he won 2k, the second time he won around 20k. Now, I'm sure he's spent enough over the years to balance it but still, the focus for him isn't the hope that he'll win 200 mill. (his only other vice is the occasional entry for a sun holiday from rte shows)

TBH I don't mind the lotto. It's a harmless gesture of a few euro a week, especially compared with the people who hang out in the gambling dens, or spend large monies at the horse races.

s15r330

NIMAN wrote: »

Its a tax on the thick.

No it isn't. I'd rather spend a couple of euro to have a chance than not.
I wouldn't say your man in Switzerland is feeling thick right now

sbsquarepants

Permabear wrote: »

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How are those odds calculated though. Odds of being killed, this year, today? You can prove pretty much anything with statistics!
Is it that once every 100,000 years an asteroid comes along and kills a lot of people and it averages out that more people are killed by asteroids?

Odds are calculated over your lifetime I presume. Those odds imply roughly 100 people alive right now will be killed by asteroids at some stage before they get the chance to die of some other cause.
100 people alive right now will win a huge jackpot by this time next year.

Every week or so, you hear of somebody somewhere wins an enormous lottery jackpot...it could be you!:D

I don't remember ever hearing of anyone anywhere being killed by an asteroid!

mikemac2

NIMAN wrote: »

Its a tax on the thick.

2.50 a line for a little dream

I see people walking around with coffee cups even where work provides free coffee or you can bring a flask from home. We need a thread on that tbh

s15r330

Actually now that a few people have said it is a tax on the stupid etc, could some of you answer this.

2 scenarios.

1. Someone spends a tenner a week on the lotto in the hopes of winning.
For their tenner they get a bit of a buzz and the hope, however slim, that them and their families will be worry free financially for the rest of their lives.

2. Someone spends a tenner a day on cigarettes which equates to €70 per week.
For their €70 they get whatever it is they get from it and the increased chance of contracting cancer which could see them in an early grave and their families left without them.

Which is the stupid person?
I think we all know.

c_man

s15r330 wrote: »

1. Someone spends a tenner a week on the lotto in the hopes of winning.
For their tenner they get a bit of a buzz and the hope, however slim, that them and their families will be worry free financially for the rest of their lives.

Imagine said person took that money (a tenner a week), put it into a nice little low cost global equity tracker for say 35 years. We'll assume an average interest rate over the period of 5%, that'd give a lump sum of E44,519.16. Not bad really, and that'd do much better for a family.

I'm not saying that the lotto is a stupid move. If you can afford it, go for it. But maybe people on lower incomes could use the money more wisely for their kids?

[Deleted User]

s15r330 wrote: »

Actually now that a few people have said it is a tax on the stupid etc, could some of you answer this.

2 scenarios.

1. Someone spends a tenner a week on the lotto in the hopes of winning.
For their tenner they get a bit of a buzz and the hope, however slim, that them and their families will be worry free financially for the rest of their lives.

2. Someone spends a tenner a day on cigarettes which equates to €70 per week.
For their €70 they get whatever it is they get from it and the increased chance of contracting cancer which could see them in an early grave and their families left without them.

Which is the stupid person?
I think we all know.

It's not really comparing like with like.

The numbers of people in Ireland who gamble are quite high. Just compare the lotto with any number of gambling activities whether it's your 60 euro poker pot in the pub, your fantasy football, or the horse races.

Permabear

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check_six

BuboBubo wrote: »

Threw 2 euro into a syndicate for the Euro millions in work today.

I know we aren't going to win. But - if those backstards won it without me I'd howl for a lifetime.

You hear a lot of crazy news reports of syndicates winning and some fella creeps out of the woodwork to claim a share despite not having contributed for years. Invariably these stingebag sleeveens get a share through the courts.

I'm not sure if this is something to be looked upon as utterly despicable (which it definitely is), or as a kind of feral genius.

What I'm saying is that, if you want to travel that road, it is possible to not contribute anything and yet and still win if the rest of your colleagues ever beat the odds. Might be a bit awkward if you all go on holiday together to celebrate though... Maybe skip any Caribbean Cruise type events for a while lest they tip you over the edge of the boat!

Badly Drunk Boy

c_man wrote: »

Imagine said person took that money (a tenner a week), put it into a nice little low cost global equity tracker for say 35 years. We'll assume an average interest rate over the period of 5%, that'd give a lump sum of E44,519.16. Not bad really, and that'd do much better for a family.

Have you been hanging out with Aongus Von Bismarck again? What have we said about that?!? :pac:

c_man

Badly Drunk Boy wrote: »

Have you been hanging out with Aongus Von Bismarck again? What have we said about that?!? :pac:

He took me in off the streets, got me a job with a good firm, taught me about the markets and I enjoyed it all. Meanwhile he also ruined the life and career of an established trader. Jamie Lee Curtis and I have just made contact with this individual, and are planning our revenge. AvB essentially traded our places and I want to know why.

Fr_Dougal

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Would you get away with that. The Lotto's tagline is brilliant: 'If you're not in, you can't win'. It's so true. I don't drink, smoke or put money on horses, football etc but the minimum amount I do per week makes me poor/a mug? So long as you don't have the expectation that you'll win and so long as you don't spend much on it I really see no harm in doing the Lotto.

If it’s played as a means of entertainment, then grand. But you see a lot of poor souls, who wouldn’t have a bob, going in and buying reams of tickets.

I probably should have been a bit clearer when I mentioned ‘stupid’, was referring to it as a means to making money.

Steve F

wakka12 wrote: »

Its not wasted money if the people enjoy spending it on them. Im sure lots of people think you're wasting your money on activities which they don't enjoy. Waste of money is subjective !
Personally I think its not a good way of spending money but hey you're never going to get to do a lotto again after this lifetime so why not try it for a chance sometime anyway.

Close the thread now please.Other posters saying we are wasting OUR MONEY by playing the lotto?
Wonder what crap they waste THEIR MONEY on?
Answers on a postcard please

dirtyden

Never Say Never Again wrote: »

I saw a lot of oaps using their christmas bonus to buy several millionaire raffle tickets which cost €25 each. Should the national lottery have products that are so expensive? What happened to the days that a £2 scratch card was their most expensive item?

How do you know the origins of the money they were spending. Many pensioners have access to money beyond the standard state pension. They could have been buying the tickets as gifts for family. Your post smacks of being ageist and is also a little fantastical.

sbsquarepants

Permabear wrote: »

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Death toll - 0, Lottery winners that week - ?:D

Permabear wrote: »

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That's the thing though, they tend not to!

It's like living in the foothills of Mt Etna. For all intents and purposes it's a paradise - but every once in a blue moon all hell breaks out, then quickly back to paradise mode!

Is it a dangerous place to live? Statistically, yes very much so if you view it on a geological time frame, but you could quite possibly live your whole life there, maybe even a few generations of your family and never have it slip out of that paradise mode for 1 second!

chrissb8

It's a couple of euro each time. How much useless s***e do you buy throughout the week?

Permabear

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Noveight

Permabear wrote: »

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Very interesting, cheers.

sbsquarepants

Permabear wrote: »

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That's a really good visualisation tool.

I played for 25 years and "won" $420. Cost me $5,162 to play!

25 years of my, ahem, lucky numbers yielded $62 for the same spend:mad:

RhubarbCrumble

chrissb8 wrote: »

It's a couple of euro each time. How much useless s***e do you buy throughout the week?

It's not though. My partner's parents both do the euromillions and Irish lotto twice a week, each. Now I'm open to correction but I think Irish lotto with plus is €4 and Euromillions with plus is €3?
They're spending almost €30 per week on the lotto. They're doing this for years and have never won anything worth talking about. A tenner a couple of times and the odd scratchcard yet MIL is fully convinced that it's only a matter of time before she appears on Winning Streak (or whatever it's called these days)

I honestly think they're a bit brainwashed.

Baron Kurtz

Allinall wrote: »

I don't buy that.

It's patronising.

Taxes are generally unavoidable .

Yeah that comment is pretty patronising. Johnny Big Balls and his sagely advice and incisive worldly thoughts. He's got it all sewn up.

mikhail

sbsquarepants wrote: »

That's a really good visualisation tool.

I played for 25 years and "won" $420. Cost me $5,162 to play!

25 years of my, ahem, lucky numbers yielded $62 for the same spend:mad:

Don't add up how much you would have spent on take away coffee (or insert your little luxury of choice) in the same period. It's not good for the heart.

Spanish Eyes

I don't care about the odds etc. But once the Euromillions goes above 100m I throw two lines at it for the craic.

Anyway back to the Millionaire Raffle thing. I think it is restricted to X amount of tickets.

Now call me Cynic Almighty, but when are the machines closed to prospective purchasers of same, ha ha!!

Well done, well done, the Canadian Teacher Pension Fund. Good investment there.

[Deleted User]

Junkyard Tom wrote: »

Perhaps indicative of a sense of desperation engendered by decreasing levels of social mobility combined with being bombarded by ostentatious wealth in the mass media.

This is true. As recently as the 90s, amounts of money in the millions and billions were beyond comprehension to most people. But nowadays with everybody aware of footballers getting millions of pounds a year in salary and being sold for tens of millions of pounds, sometimes over 100 million pounds; celebrities net worths being often mentioned to be in the high 8 figures and 9 figures; instagram posts by rich celebrities showing off their wealth; a sense that the "baseline" standard of living nowadays is to be comfortably off rather than to just be getting by etc. - all of these things and more serve to diminish in everyones minds the feeling that a lotto win of a few million euro is something to even get excited about. Everyone was much less exposed to others' rich lifestyles in the past (just as the were less exposed to lots of other stuff also, due to being less exposed to media in general).

I guarantee that a person winning £1 million in the lotto in 1995 say would have derived more satisfaction from it than a person winning even 10 million euro now. Technology, basic living standards, average real incomes etc. have all changed so that large sums of money aren't as exciting as they once were. It is selfish too but a lotto win was more of a fantasy when people were poorer in general and there were fewer rich people - it was a *fantasy* then. Add to this the fact that a lotto ticket now costs a fiver (and this millionaire raffle has increased from 20 to 25 euro itself) and I very rarely play the lotto - usually I only play the Irish lotto if it is very high and the euromillions if it is well above 100 million.

If I won 2 million tomorrow I would not feel free to live a "millionaire" lifestyle - after giving away maybe 400,000 to family I could buy a nice house, car and have a few hundred grand to set aside for my pension - somebody with no siblings who inherits a family home in Dublin is not in too much worse a position. I'm not willing to throw even a fiver once a week after a 1 in 10.7 million chance each time to win such a prize, when a desirable house in a nice part of Dublin costs basically a million to begin with. I'd rather keep my 260 euro a year.

Dakota Dan

mfceiling wrote: »

It's always pensioners. I'd say most of them spend about 70% of their pensions on scratchcards and quick picks on the lotto.

70%? Where did you pluck that figure from?

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

oideas wrote: »

Cos your aul fella sheet his tracksuit bottoms and fled to Cork. As far from Belfast as possible.

oideas wrote: »

The only person "running along" is your cowardly family when they fled Belfast. The Loyalists won that won.

What has this got to do with the lottery? Why so angry? Why are you acting like a muppet?