I read something the other day which astounded me. Acceding to reports Australians spend $60 a week on lottery and lotto tickets. I wonder if it is any different in USA. Now, I don’t know about you but I can’t imagine taking that sort of amount out of our budget every week and still trying to get by.
Yes, I know the logic is someone has to win it. That’s the sort of thinking that gets people sucked into buying tickets they can’t afford and putting money through slot machines in the hope of pulling of the jackpot.
I’ve been up the newsagents to buy the paper and been horrified at the amount of money people spend on lottery and lotto tickets. You know what? I’ve never actually known anyone who won a major prize in any of them. But I have known people whose marriages have been affected and torn apart by being married to a gambler.
The whole problem is the gambler never usually knows when to stop. It’s always ‘but my luck’s got to change soon.’ So they keep spending more and more and getting further and further into debt. They often try and cover it up and make excuses. Gambling leads to huge arguments and often divorce, because the gambler won’t or can’t change.
When you think about it the big problem behind gambling is it is based on greed. It’s that idea of a lot of money for little outlay. That’s why people even on low incomes and limited means like pensions still go to get their fix of lotto tickets. After all ‘someone has to win it,’ they insist.
People think having a lot of money will change their lives. Maybe it will, but it’s not always for the better. Statistics show people who have won lottery are often no happier and sometimes end up decidedly unhappy. No matter what they win, it doesn’t ever seem to be enough.
Someone was telling me the other day about a man he knew who had won the lotto of a million dollars. Was he happy? Did it cure him of gambling? No, what happened was he needed up spending more. He spent $1000 a week trying to recreate the feeling of winning. That’s more than our income ever was, spent in lottery tickets. It just made me wonder what else that money could have gone towards.
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