Ladbrokes anounces record profits.

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

Good post Tanith.

#onlysensibleanswer

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

Elegran, Anno and Marelli. Then it got daft.

rogue hashtag there

Well, you're entitled to your opinion.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 .