Last nights Lottery debacle

[al**bear]

Have you seen last nights lottery prizes

Three numbers    You win  £25

Four numbers      You win £51

FIVE numbers      You win £15

YES £15  for FIVE numbers

[evoman3957]

I remember somebody telling me, many years ago, that when it comes to people, psychology, conditioning and training, the following applies.

If you feed people and with each meal, you put a little piece of Dirt mixed in with it ( unnoticeable amount of course )......they'll eat it and won't notice the difference.  If you do that for long enough and very gradually, increase the amount of Dirt you put into the food; in the end, they just eat Dirt and love it.........I know, you know, what I'm saying.

[fallen-archie]

I thought the Lottery was a game of chance, if every person used the same numbers and they all came up they would win very little, it's a risk, a gamble, given the remote possibility of winning a jackpot why would anyone be concerned about getting something back?
It's a mugs game but a bit of fun to boot👍

[right-then-petal]

i had  2 nubers and won a free go for Saturdays

[5129frederick]

Basically like the football pools, the National Lottery has run it's natural course.  I used to run a syndicate of seventeen people.  During the ten years I ran it we won, in dribs and drabs a total of £6.60 each.  Not a very good return for your money!  A glutton for punishment, I also ran a Premium Bond syndicate which alsi produced nil results but at least on the eleventh month each individual had £100.00 in their own rights to sell or retain.

I now take my chances on the Virtual Roulette machines in places like Ladbroke and Bet Fred.  Minimum stake is £1.00 for four bets which pay straight odds at 35:1 so forty seconds after you've pressed the button you know whether you've won or lost.  I walked out a couple of minutes later with £6.20 in my pocket and was happy.  Had I tried to win more, I would have fed it all back again.  I went there lunchtime and had to wait patiently as some dummy actually lost £150.00 which was in the kitty.  Nobody stands there with a gun to your head.  If you're a big enough a fool to pay out everything in your pocket, go to a cash machine and pay out more, then I have no sympathy.  YOU are in control, not the manager.  The most I ever walked out with on a good day was £140.00 but instead of putting that money aside for a long weekend, all I did was pay household bills with it so in the end I had nothing to show for all my efforts.

[mikes*corvettes]

When those FOBT {fixed odds betting terminals} came along it was manna from heaven for the bookies.

[5129frederick]

I'll say!  They came into force the year before I retired.  By law they are only allowed to have four machines per outlet.  Those four were in constant use from 12.00 till 2.00 five days a week and generated £6000.00 per WEEK!  They were a magnet to the big boys, whom I tried to emulate.  Though unlike them I was haappy to walk away from the machine with a few quid in my pocket, because I was up.  The real trouble comes when you try to rub shoulders with them in the City - area of London and try to chase your losses on a bad day.  My worst "down" day was when I went through £70.00 straight from the bank trying to recoup my losses - mad, mad!!!  I actually watched somebody in non-descript clothing win £1500 and walk out with a totally bland expression in his face as if he's won a couple of quid.

Now I've retired there just isn't the money, thank God, because had I been in the job a year longer, I would have had very serious problems.  There's more money in virtual roulette than there is in drugs.

[artful_dodgings]

A fool and his money, etc.

[joe_bloggs*]

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2013/nov/08/gambling-machines-drug-money-laundering-bookies

A betting shop manager in Greater Manchester, who agreed to be interviewed anonymously, said the FOBTs in Cheetham Hill easily earned £10,000 a week, four times the over-the-counter trade, and that local mobsters gambled heavily....

"You have people laundering money every day with cash from robberies and drugs. Do you know that dyed notes from bank robberies can be submitted to the Bank of England and the company gets reimbursed? Staff know what pays their wages. They stay quiet."

[cee-dee]

I dunno about FOBTs but it's always been a FAHMASP:-

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/02/gambling-addiction-fixed-odds-betting-terminals

[bankhaunter]

I remember the story of the chaps who realised holes in one during golf tournaments were not as uncommon as was thought.

They went up and down the country laying small bets at very good odds and really cleaned up.

[upthecreekyetagain]

The case of the lottery is the exact opposite to that Bank. 

People not realising that if you choose multiples of 7 as all your numbers, (7,14,21,28,35,42,49), then should they happen to come up you'll likely have to share the prize with thousands!

[bankhaunter]

Where I worked they decided to have a lottery syndicate.

We had to put a lot of pressure on to one nitwit who thought 1,2,3,4,5,6 was a good idea, pointing out to him that it stood no better a chance of winning and at the time, with the estimated number of people choosing those numbers, a win would just be a few hundred pounds.

I think those numbers are second in the list of most common passwords.

Bookie's odds on holes in one dropped dramitically after that episode.

[al**bear]

Last night

Four numbers      You win £161

FIVE numbers      You win £1620