Gambling Goes Up During Recession?

[SarahBell]

I noticed that national lottery jackpots seem to be getting smaller and smaller.

It's a jackpot of £4m this week on a Saturday... I'm sure it used to be more... but the data available only goes back to May!

Are people playing more on scratchcards or are there just so many other tickets to buy there?

I can't see any news stories about their recent profits .......... where will I find details?

November

Wed 10 Nov 10 15 - 26 - 30 - 35 - 40 - 41 34 £ 2.95 M 1553 LANCELOT 8 View

Sat 06 Nov 10 12 - 22 - 30 - 31 - 34 - 39 36 £ 17.70 M 1552 LANCELOT 6 View

Wed 03 Nov 10 13 - 21 - 28 - 37 - 39 - 45 6 £ 11.22 M 1551 MERLIN 7 View

October

Sat 30 Oct 10 2 - 22 - 32 - 33 - 37 - 45 11 £ 7.57 M 1550 LANCELOT 5 View

Wed 27 Oct 10 3 - 5 - 11 - 16 - 41 - 48 32 £ 2.37 M 1549 LANCELOT 8 View

Sat 23 Oct 10 2 - 3 - 14 - 29 - 35 - 42 12 £ 13.44 M 1548 LANCELOT 7 View

Wed 20 Oct 10 14 - 30 - 31 - 36 - 44 - 47 26 £ 8.31 M 1547 LANCELOT 6 View

Sat 16 Oct 10 6 - 30 - 34 - 38 - 45 - 48 32 £ 5.12 M 1546 MERLIN 8 View

Wed 13 Oct 10 18 - 19 - 24 - 26 - 27 - 44 8 £ 2.30 M 1545 LANCELOT 5 View

Sat 09 Oct 10 5 - 11 - 19 - 29 - 33 - 35 46 £ 3.95 M 1544 MERLIN 6 View

Wed 06 Oct 10 9 - 17 - 18 - 23 - 30 - 35 14 £ 2.25 M 1543 LANCELOT 8 View

Sat 02 Oct 10 10 - 16 - 25 - 26 - 32 - 40 46 £ 4.63 M 1542 MERLIN 6 View

September

Wed 29 Sep 10 21 - 25 - 29 - 32 - 38 - 44 14 £ 10.94 M 1541 MERLIN 7 View

Sat 25 Sep 10 19 - 22 - 30 - 33 - 35 - 39 5 £ 7.43 M 1540 LANCELOT 5 View

Wed 22 Sep 10 9 - 12 - 27 - 29 - 41 - 47 19 £ 2.33 M 1539 LANCELOT 1 View

Sat 18 Sep 10 4 - 5 - 16 - 17 - 20 - 32 3 £ 7.30 M 1538 MERLIN 2 View

Wed 15 Sep 10 2 - 20 - 33 - 40 - 43 - 46 14 £ 2.85 M 1537 LANCELOT 4 View

Sat 11 Sep 10 4 - 20 - 21 - 35 - 39 - 40 28 £ 4.99 M 1536 LANCELOT 3 View

Wed 08 Sep 10 8 - 10 - 26 - 34 - 48 - 49 6 £ 2.60 M 1535 MERLIN 1 View

Sat 04 Sep 10 16 - 19 - 26 - 27 - 41 - 47 34 £ 4.66 M 1534 MERLIN 2 View

Wed 01 Sep 10 7 - 20 - 21 - 27 - 28 - 41 4 £ 2.25 M 1533 LANCELOT 4 View

August

Sat 28 Aug 10 3 - 17 - 32 - 35 - 43 - 49 27 £ 4.70 M 1532 MERLIN 3 View

Wed 25 Aug 10 5 - 10 - 12 - 17 - 28 - 30 47 £ 1.73 M 1531 LANCELOT 4 View

Sat 21 Aug 10 8 - 15 - 19 - 26 - 33 - 36 1 £ 4.34 M 1530 LANCELOT 1 View

Wed 18 Aug 10 2 - 13 - 16 - 24 - 25 - 40 18 £ 2.44 M 1529 LANCELOT 2 View

Sat 14 Aug 10 5 - 13 - 17 - 31 - 42 - 46 4 £ 4.38 M 1528 MERLIN 3 View

Wed 11 Aug 10 4 - 21 - 25 - 27 - 31 - 34 45 £ 2.49 M 1527 MERLIN 4 View

Sat 07 Aug 10 13 - 16 - 22 - 25 - 31 - 39 7 £ 4.47 M 1526 LANCELOT 2 View

Wed 04 Aug 10 14 - 17 - 22 - 24 - 38 - 43 21 £ 11.17 M 1525 LANCELOT 3 View

July

Sat 31 Jul 10 10 - 24 - 30 - 33 - 40 - 45 16 £ 7.68 M 1524 MERLIN 4 View

Wed 28 Jul 10 1 - 11 - 33 - 37 - 42 - 43 19 £ 2.66 M 1523 MERLIN 1 View

Sat 24 Jul 10 24 - 26 - 33 - 35 - 43 - 44 27 £ 7.29 M 1522 MERLIN 3 View

Wed 21 Jul 10 8 - 16 - 25 - 27 - 28 - 34 32 £ 2.27 M 1521 MERLIN 2 View

Sat 17 Jul 10 15 - 28 - 32 - 43 - 44 - 45 20 £ 7.70 M 1520 MERLIN 1 View

Wed 14 Jul 10 1 - 15 - 25 - 26 - 40 - 43 16 £ 2.69 M 1519 MERLIN 7 View

Sat 10 Jul 10 3 - 5 - 30 - 31 - 38 - 47 37 £ 7.48 M 1518 MERLIN 8 View

Wed 07 Jul 10 23 - 29 - 34 - 36 - 41 - 45 22 £ 2.82 M 1517 LANCELOT 8 View

Sat 03 Jul 10 8 - 31 - 37 - 43 - 44 - 48 14 £ 7.59 M 1516 LANCELOT 6 View

June

Wed 30 Jun 10 6 - 18 - 20 - 25 - 35 - 36 31 £ 2.54 M 1515 LANCELOT 5 View

Sat 26 Jun 10 18 - 26 - 33 - 35 - 37 - 47 3 £ 4.77 M 1514 MERLIN 7 View

Wed 23 Jun 10 5 - 9 - 13 - 17 - 22 - 27 30 £ 1.58 M 1513 LANCELOT 6 View

Sat 19 Jun 10 34 - 37 - 39 - 41 - 42 - 47 45 £ 8.13 M 1512 MERLIN 7 View

Wed 16 Jun 10 4 - 8 - 32 - 34 - 40 - 47 16 £ 2.69 M 1511 LANCELOT 5 View

Sat 12 Jun 10 1 - 16 - 17 - 19 - 33 - 34 9 £ 4.69 M 1510 LANCELOT 6 View

Wed 09 Jun 10 14 - 26 - 33 - 45 - 46 - 49 30 £ 7.37 M 1509 MERLIN 8 View

Sat 05 Jun 10 5 - 22 - 23 - 24 - 26 - 29 31 £ 4.13 M 1508 MERLIN 5 View

Wed 02 Jun 10 2 - 12 - 17 - 25 - 33 - 39 1 £ 2.29 M 1507 MERLIN 6 View

May

Sat 29 May 10 2 - 17 - 36 - 39 - 42 - 48 41 £ 4.79 M 1506 MERLIN 7 View

Wed 26 May 10 2 - 4 - 5 - 19 - 20 - 27 21 £ 1.87 M 1505 LANCELOT 5 View

Sat 22 May 10 1 - 4 - 16 - 37 - 47 - 49 27 £ 4.73 M 1504 LANCELOT 6 View

Wed 19 May 10 15 - 23 - 24 - 34 - 36 - 47 44 £ 2.79 M 1503 MERLIN 8 View

[Fairies Wear Boots]

It'll be the Euro millions. Bigger prizes. And when it jackpots, it jackpots to stupendous amounts.

Why would you buy a ticket with stuff all chance of winning 4 million when you can buy a ticket with stuff all chance of winning 113 million quid?

[fellow]

2 draws a week + Thunderball + Euromillions + scratchcards. They've flooded the market, and as the jackpot gets smaller, demand falls.

Edited November 13, 2010 by fellow

[Uriah Heap]

I think gambling is a perfectly rational thing to do if you have very little money.

There isn't much difference between having next to nothing and having nothing. If your weekly disposable income is say £10, putting a couple of quid on the lottery makes very little difference to your standard of living. But if you win your situation could be transformed. And if you do it regularly you will always have some hope in your life that you might one day be rich.

Sounds a good buy to me.

[fellow]

I think gambling is a perfectly rational thing to do if you have very little money.

There isn't much difference between having next to nothing and having nothing. If your weekly disposable income is say £10, putting a couple of quid on the lottery makes very little difference to your standard of living. But if you win your situation could be transformed. And if you do it regularly you will always have some hope in your life that you might one day be rich.

Sounds a good buy to me.

So it's basically a tax on the poor?

[SarahBell]

So it's basically a tax on the poor?

It has previously been attacked as a tax on the stupid poor.

But nice of them to fund middle class ballet schools.

[Fairies Wear Boots]

I think gambling is a perfectly rational thing to do if you have very little money.

There isn't much difference between having next to nothing and having nothing. If your weekly disposable income is say £10, putting a couple of quid on the lottery makes very little difference to your standard of living. But if you win your situation could be transformed. And if you do it regularly you will always have some hope in your life that you might one day be rich.

Sounds a good buy to me.

2 pounds for some hope? It could be worth it. But it sounds a bit ludicrous to me if all you have is ten pounds a week to spend.

I buy a ticket on jackpots because 2 pounds isn't much to me and it means I'd go from comfortable and having to work to having loadsamoney!

Interesting what another poster put about thunder ball and two draws and flooding the market. With a piddly four million pound jackpot you can't even buy a decent house.

[Authoritarian]

2 draws a week + Thunderball + Euromillions + scratchcards. They've flooded the market, and as the jackpot gets smaller, demand falls.

Quite, the lottery has been devalued.

They should reduce it to one main draw once a week on a saturday, then it becomes a bit of a special event.

[Fairies Wear Boots]

As for it being a tax on the poor, doesn't the proceeds after retailer cut and administration fees and prize money go to charity?

Whereas giving chuggers two pounds goes to administration fees, the chuggers wages, and then some to charity, with no chance of winning any money?

[The Masked Tulip]

Sats used to be about 7 million, Weds used to be about 3.5 to 4 mill but Sat has come down to Weds now and Weds is sometimes down just below 2 mill.

What I find interesting is monitoring the unclaimed prizes - sometimes you notice the same small town cropping up in a matter of weeks, sometimes consecutively, with quite sizeable amounts unclaimed.

Some of the places have been so small that I have had to google them to find them so I do find it quite bizarre that this could happen in such a small place.

I suspect lots of people did the Euros last night as it was giving 10 1 million jackpots to people but it was dependent upon them being chosen randomly as opposed to having to get the correct lotto numbers which I think means the odds if winning a million last night were much better than normal?

[Fairies Wear Boots]

I suspect lots of people did the Euros last night as it was giving 10 1 million jackpots to people but it was dependent upon them being chosen randomly as opposed to having to get the correct lotto numbers which I think means the odds if winning a million last night were much better than normal?

A million pounds. Hardly worth bothering about. That'll buy you a couple of loaves of bread in a few years time

[winkie]

I have a tenners worth of premium bonds bought a few years ago....don't bother to gamble because if I was meant to win I would win on those.

[@contradevian]

I have a tenners worth of premium bonds bought a few years ago....don't bother to gamble because if I was meant to win I would win on those.

Got a bundle of premium bonds bought in the 70's during the the times of three day weeks and power cuts. Never won a thing!

Also I think people have got wise to the fact that lotto money is funding a lot of crap, they don't like. For instance one of our local parks is being done up on Lotto money, because the council ran it into the ground.

Edited November 13, 2010 by Sir John Steed

[Fairies Wear Boots]

Also I think people have got wise to the fact that lotto money is funding a lot of crap, they don't like. For instance one of our local parks is being done on Lotto money, because the council ran it into the ground.

Maybe it is a tax on the stupid then. I'll get my dunces hat.

[Bradbury Robinson]

After doing the lottery for many years on and off I now only do it if it is a rollover on the Lotto OR >£50m on the Euromillions. It's nothing to do with the amounts, although that does help a little, but more to do with limiting how much you play. Once you add together the Wed/Sat draws and the Euromillions you could be blowing a fair amount each month, so it's lucky dips only from now so I'm not tied to any numbers.

ON the PB front I won last month and got a check for £25, I though it was the big one when I was opening the envelope!

[Bradbury Robinson]

My last post reminded me to check the PB website and I've landed another 2 x £25 this month!

I'll have enough to buy a house in about 76 years!

[winkie]

My last post reminded me to check the PB website and I've landed another 2 x £25 this month!

What does the interest rate work out to be?

[Bradbury Robinson]

What does the interest rate work out to be?

I only got them in June and started with about £3k and it's up to £4.5k now, I'm not sure what that would work out to be, possibly about 3-3.5%?

Sorry, just to add that it's up to £4.5k through payments NOT prizes! Prizes are £75!

Edited November 13, 2010 by RiTSo

[juvenal]

My brother has £30K of Premium Bonds and is getting 1.5% pa on them. He gets a buzz out of opening the envelopes...

[the_duke_of_hazzard]

2 pounds for some hope? It could be worth it. But it sounds a bit ludicrous to me if all you have is ten pounds a week to spend.

I buy a ticket on jackpots because 2 pounds isn't much to me and it means I'd go from comfortable and having to work to having loadsamoney!

Interesting what another poster put about thunder ball and two draws and flooding the market. With a piddly four million pound jackpot you can't even buy a decent house.

I feel much the same when people criticize the poor for smoking. If you don't get much pleasure from work or the rest of your life, then a fag is still a lot cheaper - as well as quickly consumed and appreciated - than the bottle of fancy lager or a take-away coffee that the middle-classes seem to think is a sophisticated essential.