Winning the lottery

If people win ridiculously large sums they can do some good by givibg ro charities but they can also do a great deal of harm if they are politically motivated,

In 2011 a couple called Weir won about £160 million pounds in the Euro lottery. Since then they have been bankrolling the SNP giving them millions of pounds to spread their evil divisive prpoganda,

The Weirs paid for 80% of the cost of the "Yes" side in the 2014 "Once in a generation" referendum. Without their lottery money the minority supporting the separation of Scotland from the rest of the UK would have been much smaller and there would be no talk of a rerun.

It might be me! I've had another e-mail telling me to check my lottery account but have resisted so far so that the dream can continue a while longer I don't think anyone should win 148m - it's a ridiculous amount for one person and would do far more good being divided up into much smaller chunks so more people & charities can benefit.

I don't buy lottery tickets, particularly as the odds got even worse.

If they'd change it around to create 148 millionaires instead of one person getting it all I probably would, as the odds would be better.

What are the odds of winning now? I know it used to be 1 in 14 million, but isn't it 1 in 56 million now?

Yes Absent I am one of those "fools" but it's nice for me to dream.

I know the chances of winning are minuscule but as the saying goes "if you aren't in it, you can't win it".

"A tax on all fools".

I have never bought a lottery ticket and never shall.

Did everyone see the winning Lotto numbers in last night's draw? 1, 2, 3, 4, 20, 21. Very unusual, but one lucky so-and-so came up trumps.

Not me... Probably just as well, as a fortune-teller told me I'll be very, very wealthy very, very late in life. I've taken that to mean that as soon as I get that big win, the grim reaper will be tapping me on the shoulder. Typical.

I agree with Newquay - £1,000,000 is enough so let's have lots more smaller prizes. However I have a friend of a friend who won 30 times that recently and like lots of you, I know exactly what I would do with a large sum: a house for each of my 2 sons, a savings account for grand-daughter so she can afford a university education in due course, a scholarship donated to each of my sons' schools in gratitude for the ones they won as 11 year olds, and a new house for me far away from the bullying neighbours who are currently making my life a total misery. Having been recently widowed I'm reluctant to move from what was a happy family home for many years but having abuse shouted at me in the street by my neighbours' 30-something son is not pleasant but very stressful.

I sometimes win £10 on the RSPB lottery and I donate it back.

If I won a large amount of money, first employ a good accountant so you could enjoy your winnings without worrying. Some luxury travelling, slowly, some beauty therapy, some house upgrading, help the family but I wouldn't spend all that much.

Now comes the problem how to use it to do good for others. 148 million may sound a lot but could easily be used up. I think I would like to invest in help for children who are struggling at school to help them catch up and then reach their full potential. Maybe some scholarships to help pay for extra lessons.

Also other scholarships for poor talented children to meet their potential. I always remember a very bright girl in my class who had to leave school at 15 as her family needed her to work. She went to work in a factory but I heard they moved her to the office so I hope she did well. 55 years later the unfairness still bothers me.

If I won a large lottery prize, I would have tea at Claridges, and mull over my spending plans whilst wallowing in warm scones and clotted cream
So many people have remarked that suddenly being in possession of heaps of money seems to cause unhappiness, and I can see that it might cause family squabbles over how much was going to whom, but maybe these people weren't happy in the first place - some people are chronically discontented, no matter how much they have.
Anyway, I'd rather be miserable and rich than miserable and poor!

It would be wonderful to be able to transform lives. I would pay my son's mortgage and do all the jobs he needs done on his house, to see the worry lines and the long hours at work taken away from him.
I would do the same for another member of the family who has a wife with a life limiting illness and is ill with worry himself - money won't cure their situation but it would lift some of their concerns from them.
Another lovely thing would be to buy the land occupied by a local animal sanctuary who are being threatened with closure because their lease has almost run out - how WONDERFUL to be able to stick two fingers up at Tesco!
Then probably like others - help with shop openings, town tidying, young people's welfare etc. But how I do agree that the sum of money won was far, far too much for one person. Fourteen people winning ten million could do all the above and still be set up for life.

I got an email from the lottery this morning telling me I had a message and congratulations!!! So excited! Turned out to be £25. Not quite the fortune I was hoping for but better than a pole in the eye with a short stick.

I would buy a couple of holiday cottages in various locations, all overlooking the sea. These could be used by anyone in the family who wanted a break. Then I'd buy both adult children, and ourselves, a house each. My daughter has always wanted horses so she'd get them, with land and stables. I'd also like to be a secret millionaire, meeting people who need cash badly, and secretly giving them what they need. I like to help people start businesses, because that creates employment. I'd create proper shelters in every town, so there is no such thing as a homeless person. I'd employ teams of gardeners and landscapers, to revamp all the scruffy bits of town, and would open up all the closed shops to those who have good ideas for new shops. I'd pay their rent and rates for a couple of years. Oh, the ideas are endless. What a fun subject.

Gagagran you beat me to it, I won 2x£25 and I was delighted. I never buy a lottery ticket now that I have left work.
If I won a decent amount it would be given to animal charities here and abroad after I had extended my kitchen. My needs are simple also.

I've won 3x£25 in the May Premium Bond draw and am really chuffed with that! I would hate to win mega millions and would give most of it away.

I read about the woman who won all that money. It seemed to buy an Equal amount of unhappiness . There was no mention of money to charity so perhaps because the money was self self self it couldn't do any good.

Having said that, I think £9.60 was the most we managed to win!

Houses bought for all the family. Buy a plot of land somewhere great and have the house of our dreams built for us. Also purchase houses in a couple of other countries for family to have the use of. World cruise, first class travel wherever we wanted.
We talked recently about a £58m win, and agreed that if that was us, several charities would each have a £1m donation.

first of all i'd pay off my mortgage and get everything sorted inside the house and in the garden [other half starts things but doesn't actually finish them and i'd buy myself a new car]. I think i'd also have my second knee replacement operation.
i'd then make sure both my children received goodly shares so that they'd be able to choose whether to retire or not and i'd probably treat them to new cars too.
then i'd see that my other half had a house of his own [we don't live together] and also a car. he could then stop being a head chef and go back to repairing computers [his first love] again to keep him occupied as I don't think he'd be ready to fully retire.
a holiday home somewhere exotic so that we can all share when we want a holiday.
after that i'd make a hefty donation to the charity i'm a trustee for [if that makes sense] so that research could be done on the rare skin disease I suffer from [together with hundreds of other people].
then i'd hope to be able to do something for the young and the homeless.
i'm a firm believer in the old saying "charity begins at home" so that's where my priorities lie.
of course, it would have to be a substantial win to do all this .................. and i'd actually have to buy a lottery ticket too!!

I can't understand why it's thought reasonable for one person to win so much money? They could have made 148 millionaires instead of one person. It would be SUCH a responsibility to spend wisely and do good. . . .
I'm sure I'm not alone saying I have all I NEED but I'm sure I could always think of some wants. Lol!

I have never bought myself a lottery ticket so I'd have to rely on the charity of winning family members.

But if I did win.........I would use the money primarily to provide work schemes that involve homeless people in building their own homes, support some children's charities in this country and then look at ways of financing people in poor situations abroad to set up sustainable incomes. I like the idea of a 'hand up' much more than a 'hand-out'. I would employ my children to manage various aspects of my charitable work thereby enabling them to have a good income and help themselves too.

I think only one of my children buys an occasional lottery ticket, so I suspect I'm dreaming an impossible dream.

Willow , I too have delayed checking my Friday ticket as I like to dream if I wait until today to check my Friday ticket I have another chance of winning tonight. I don't gamble in any other way, except Ernie. I think sometimes a win of say £250k to £500k would be better than winning a huge amount of money. Harrigran I too would like to help the homeless. I hope we all win on the lottery but our lives are not changed drastically.

I received an e-mail this morning telling me to log into my lottery account as there was some news on last night's draw! I deliberately didn't so I could imagine what I'd do with the millions I was sure to have won. New house, buy a big one in NZ so we could visit regularly and son and DIL could live in it and give substantial sums to both sons and other family. Of course when I've logged in it was £5.20 so I've ploughed it back into another ticket for tonight and Friday Back to the dream!

I'd see all my family comfortable; buy a house close to both families and make ample provision for care in my later years. Holidays for all; first class travel every time. Bursaries for girls in Kenya.

I won the lottery on Saturday- £25 which was nice. If I had a big win like the one mentioned I would like to set up my own charitable foundation probably around education.