UK Lottery - do you do it?

[Asura]

Most I've ever won was a tenner. In twenty years I've only heard of two big wins. One was for ?120,000 by a guy I worked with and the other was a man who lived a few doors down from us who won around ?7m. Both utterly wasted it all in quick order. The fall in the jackpot has also killed much interest in it, don't know many who bother with it these days.

It's not just the jackpot getting smaller, it's inflation. We've reached a point today where 2 million quid really isn't that much money!

You could afford a nice house, a nice car, a few nice holidays, private school tuition for 2 kids... And that's about it.

The "millionaire lifestyle" needs around 15 million today - with a reasonably sustainable income.

Of course, 2 million isn't an amount to laugh at; it's a lot of money. It's just not a "lifechanging" amount. If you're smart, anything under 5 million will yield just what I said above - a higher standard of living and financial security. It'd be wonderful, but people squander it as they think it's more than it is! They hear the word "million" and picture a mansion in the home counties, a holiday villa in Tuscany, a fleet of Ferraris...

[charlesr]

Indeed. Value of money goes down every year, value of gold goes up every year. And yet our entire economy is based on how wonderful money is

[Soundwave]

I do it weekly.
Lucky Dips only for me
I did do important numbers but quickly gave up that idea.

I've won a few times.
Had 4 numbers on a couple of occasions but never more than that.

If I ever got round to winning the whole thing I'm damn sure a few Forum members could expect a gift or ten.

Neil

[Brad]

I'm ?1040 up on the national lottery... by never having given them my ?1 each week!

[stevie vip 99]

Yeah direct debit for me.
It costs more to get the bus and you can get murdered on a bus!
For the small cost i think it's worth a gamble for the chance of a couple of million.

Don't win too often but won ?1200 with gradius off this forum a few years back, started a syndicate from work and we won it a couple of weeks, which was nice

[112]

My friend's relative won the Euro millions Jackpot in a works syndicate a few years back, each member netted a few millon... I still see him from time to time and it is nice to see that he has put the money to some good use and changed his family's lives somewhat...

I don't think I will forget what he said to me, not long after he won the jackpot

"you'll find that when you come into A LOT of money, you don't actually change that much, it's the people around you that change the most."

To be honest, I'd love to find that out for myself one day...

112

[QualityChimp]

Agree with most the posts.
Direct Debit and lucky dip so you're not getting superstitious about it all.
I always get a little excited when I get the "Exciting news about your ticket..." email, despite knowing it's going to be ?2.24.

I've won other competitions and stuff. I get most joy from radio competitions, but I can't listen to it in my current job.

So, slightly off-topic, I wondered if we started a "competitions thread" if people would contribute and post links to competitions they've spotted?

Stuff like this:

http://www.shortlist.com/win/win-the-ultimate-ps4-remote-play-bundle

[Asura]

These days I only occasionally get a lucky dip on the Euro Millions when they have a rollover. The odds of winning any lottery are tiny, but at least if you win that you're sorted. You'd have to really lose your senses to squander 200mil.

[MartyG]

It's similar to how you'd probably never choose "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6", but they have as much chance of appearing as any other combination.

That's actually quite a common choice apparently and would provide a poor payout if it ever came up amongst the 14 million odd possible combinations given you'd be sharing the jackpot with 7000-10000 others. You try telling my mother that any one combination is just as likely as any other given they are independent events and she won't believe you.

[Asura]

That's actually quite a common choice apparently and would provide a poor payout if it ever came up amongst the 14 million odd possible combinations given you'd be sharing the jackpot with 7000-10000 others. You try telling my mother that any one combination is just as likely as any other given they are independent events and she won't believe you.

Well yeah; the fact Casinos even exist is a monument to the idea that some people don't "get" probability (not that everyone going to a Casino struggles with this idea; some people are just comfortable losing the money for entertainment value).

[VR46]

Agree with most the posts.
Direct Debit and lucky dip so you're not getting superstitious about it all.
I always get a little excited when I get the "Exciting news about your ticket..." email, despite knowing it's going to be ?2.24.

I've won other competitions and stuff. I get most joy from radio competitions, but I can't listen to it in my current job.

So, slightly off-topic, I wondered if we started a "competitions thread" if people would contribute and post links to competitions they've spotted?

Stuff like this:
http://www.shortlist.com/win/win-the...te-play-bundle

Always a good list of competitions here, but that site gets so many readers your chances of winning are instantly hit

http://www.hotukdeals.com/all/competitions/discussed

[kryss]

I need to go to a casino and count cards to pay off my credit card. Only at the blackjack table of course, and small amounts at a time.

[aticatac]

Yeah I play both Lotto and Euro but never had more than three numbers though,also I play the irish and NY lotto twice a week. I would need to get at least five numbers on lotto to compensate for what I have spent on all lotto`s in last five years lol

[k0pp0]

Play it rarely. My uncle won 250k on it a while back. Bastard.