Ladbrokes anounces record profits.

I would buy a lottery ticket each week if they were sold in my village [not prepared to drive somewhere to purchase one]. I hear of so many good projects that are funded by the lottery. But I do worry about people who buy lots of them or obsessively buy scratch cards. As for betting shops, the subject has been raised before and I pointed out then that people I know that have bets on horses disapprove of these machines. At least when you have a bet on a horse you use a few brain cells to analyse the race which I enjoy doing. No, I'm not rich Frank, but I'm very careful with the money I do have and it's my choice what I spend it on, especially as I very rarely drink and don't smoke. Don't want to be too squeaky clean do I .

J08 While standing in a queue to buy my newspaper I cannot help noticing that the people in front buying lottery tickets are spending considerably more than a pound a time.

Similarly, when there is a rollover the number of tickets bought increases hugely, as if having ten goes instead of five will make a statistical difference.

In times of desperation all of these things will prosper won't they?

On the council estate where my son and daughter in law live the once family butcher shop closed down and reopened as a betting shop. I notice it open quite late at night too. I imagine poor people with very little to lose, losing their last in the vain hope that this last pound might just be the lucky one.

Good thing people do still do the national lottery. It's been very useful to a lot of good causes. I doubt if a pound a week makes a lot of difference to anyone's finances.

I've not done The National Lottery for quite a while now but do go into "Ladbrokes" to buy Irish Lottery tickets for Wednesday and Saturday,the amount you can win is no where as near The National Lottery but you can play 4 x lines for £1.00 and over the months I have won about 5/6 times amounts about £152.00 for 25p so not a bad boost to the glamma purse strings.

Eloethan That's exactly what I meant – more people desperately hoping for a win to solve their financial problems. I felt the same way as your Dad at the time the lottery was set up and I think we have both been proved right.

Absent - Perhaps the sale increased sale of lottery tickets is happening not despite these difficult times but because of them. If you see no hope for future prosperity you tend to cling on to a dream and, of course, the buying of a lottery ticket is the triumph of hope over experience. I'm not judging - I buy them myself now and again. But, honestly, aren't there far too many different types of lottery tickets now. I remember my Dad being very angry that the government was sanctioning gambling - seeing it as a "slippery slope". I thought he was a bit over the top at the time, but I can certainly see his point now.

Sadly I think when times are very tough the people who can least afford it try anything in the hope that " this time they may get lucky" . It really isn't fair to judge anyone unless you have been in that situation yourself. I can see how/why anyone could imagine that this time the risk might just pay off.

Well, you're entitled to your opinion.

rogue hashtag there

You talking to me phoenix? (only just looked at thread again)#

Elegran, Anno and Marelli. Then it got daft.

No response to my question ? Oh well...................

I'm with Edmund Burke with that one – the lottery is a tax on all fools [and those who are arithmetically challenged]

We have a family syndicate and each member puts £2 in a week.
We will share any prize but I suspect most of my share will get spent on my grandchildren.

Frank

I bet (ha, ha, ha) the National Lottery or whatever it is called these days is seeing a massive resurgence in the buying of tickets too.

Hi Eloethan

I just keep away from bookies, pawnbrokers, same day loan companies etc.
They take a pile of money from you and you get nothing back.
Oddly enough I did walk in to a pawnbroker by mistake just before Christmas.
The shop sold watches and did watch repairs in the past and I did not notice it had changed to being a pawnbroker.

Frank

It's good to know we've got some growth industries in this country - bookies, pawnbrokers, same day loan companies etc.

Would you care to name or identify the ones that you have decided were reasonable, j08 ?

Actually there were three more reasonable posts before the mocking started. Sorry posters concerned.

Good post Tanith.

#onlysensibleanswer

Frank's original posts are perfectly reasonable. It's all the rubbish other posters pile in with that causes the trouble.

Hi thee to
Lils

Well, there's a thing! Now that you have posted that link jane I do seem to remember a reference to "dander" as in sort of scurf/dead skin etc somewhere. Perhaps it was Shakespeare?

(See, yet again I am so easily led away from the original topic!)

Phoenix I had a mental image of a goose too
But apparently it's something to do with dandruff www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/get-your-dander-up.html or, if you don't like that idea, it's something to do with the fermentation process [mind boggles emoticon]

Thanks Galen I thought it was but then had a moment of doubt, as it is a word that is not much used these days!

Anyway, all else aside, my dander does seem to be up.

(Still not quite sure exactly what a dander is, and perhaps more importantly how to get it down once it is up. I suppose being the sort of person who thinks in pictures, I'm imagining a dander as a sort of goose shaped umbrella................ I really should get out more)

Right, sorry for the diversion back to Franks gambling topic. (All ears emoticon)