Lottery Vs Gambling – The Hopeful And The Lucky

Lottery vs Gambling

It’s both an interesting and infuriating point, but many people who play the lottery also claim they are not gamblers. In other words, they don’t see buying lottery tickets as gambling. For them, gambling is something that you do when you go to casinos to win the jackpot, whether land-based or online. What they fail to see is that both gambling and playing the lottery are about chance. It’s about the risk of spending money. With absolutely no guarantee that you will win money or prizes back. 

The truth of the matter is that you have a much better chance of winning if you were to go sports betting. Bringing home some winnings on horse racing or football is much easier than winning the lottery. Which often has mind-boggling and totally impossible odds. Today we’re going to have a look at the evergreen arguments between gambling vs the lottery. 

UKGC Gambling Advertising Requirements

We should start by looking at advertising that surrounds the gambling industry. In the UK there are set and stringent rules which all online and offline casino companies must abide by if they wish to keep their hard-won casino licences. These rules are laid down by the UK Gambling Commission, and they include such things as:

• No promotion of any guaranteed winnings.
• No glamorising gambling with sexual images.
• It’s forbidden to target vulnerable individuals.
• All advertising should be forward-facing for people of 18 years and over.
• Only neutral calls to action are allowed.

Now we have the legal part out of the way, let’s have a look at both gambling and lottery in greater detail, including their history and their relevance for today’s gamblers.

Gambling

It has been said that one can find traces of gambling as far back as the Paleolithic period, which is way before any written history, and these come from cave paintings and primitive illustrations on rocks. Jumping forward to around 3000 BC, we find six-sided dice in Mesopotamia, which themselves are based on astragali, which dates back thousands of years earlier. In the first Millennium BC, we can find lots of traces of gambling in China, where betting on animal fights was probably one of the most popular pastimes. In around the 10th century lotto games and dominoes first appeared in China. This was followed by playing cards in the 9th century. Moving over to Japan, we can find traces of gambling as far back as the 14th century. 

The Casino Game of Poker

In the US today, probably one of the most popular card games is poker. This has its origins going back to Persian times when it was known as the game of “As-Nas” and dates back to at least the 17th century. Finally, we have the first live casino which was called the “Ridotto” and was started in Venice in 1638. Now the question is, what do all these historical games have in common, and what makes them gambling? Well, I think we can all agree that gambling is the wagering of money on anything about you with the intent of winning something. We could probably go further and breakdown this distinction into three main areas:

• Consideration
• Risk
• Award/Prize

Most gambling activities today will produce an immediate result. Whether you’re spinning a wheel, placing a bet on a horse, or rolling a dice, the result is you either win or lose and you’ll know it very quickly. It’s true though, with some jackpot games there is the possibility of insuring your bet and also there are other options that can include having a percentage of your wager returned to you. 

Gambling For Fun

We were always told that gambling should remain a fun activity. Yet in truth, the majority of gamblers are only interested in winning something and making a profit. It’s for that reason that gambling companies offer massive bonuses. These come in the form of incentives, along with no-deposit offers, free spins bonuses, and VIP services, which can include invites, free luxury transportation, and hotels. But make no mistake, the whole idea of modern gambling is to try and turn a profit.

If you stop to think about it, it’s obvious the casino is not going to give you anything for free. It’s a business and their business is to make money. That’s why whatever casino game we play, you’ll always have to face the house age. This is a percentage commission that the casino takes from every bet, whether you win or lose. You’ll often read that the UK Gambling Commission will promote playing responsibly with the slogan “When the fun stops, stop!” What they forget to consider is human nature, which is constantly looking out for the next rush of dopamine. 

This can be seen when you watch a winning gambler. Having made a healthy profit, he will then keep playing at the table until it is all lost. Once again, this is human nature. To believe that, because we’ve been successful once, we should be able to repeat it. Even if the event involved nothing more than sheer luck.

Gambling Regulation

Gambling has been around for centuries in Great Britain, with horse racing being one of the first and favourite gambling activities which are still practiced today. But in the modern age, we realise that there are many people who have a problem with gambling and over the last few years more than 400,000 people have registered themselves as problem gamblers.

Obviously, in the face of such huge numbers, the government is not going to sit on its hands. Not just in the UK, but wherever you are in the world, you’re going to find that gambling and the lottery are very controlled. It falls under strict licensing or is considered completely illegal. If you’re a casino that wants to accept gamblers, whether online or off, then you’ll need to follow closely the government rules and regulations. These stipulate how you can attract gamblers. As well as the levels of taxation, as gambling generates considerable amounts of profits.

Market Size

Looking at the UK market for the years 2017 to 2018, we can see that, thanks to the gambling commission, the gross gambling yield is something in the region of £14.5 billion. Of this, over 39% came from remote market shares, in the casino, bingo, and sports betting market sector, which together employ around 106,000 people.

There are around 183,000 gaming machines in the UK. The UK Gambling Commission has strict rules on advertising to persons under the age of 18. Or using any form of sexual images or showing people throwing money around in order to attract new players. However, when it comes to advertising the lottery it appears things are quite different.

Chances of Winning the Lottery

It’s bonkers if you stop and think about it for a minute. The idea is that you have a chance to guess six random numbers from 1 to 60, along with the bonus number. That’s the equivalent of stopping a stranger in the street and guessing their mobile telephone number. Yes, it really is that bonkers. If for example, you were sports better and you were betting on 6 horse races in a row, at least if you had studied the background of the horses, the weather conditions, how the horses run, and how many of their previous races they had won, then you’d have a much better chance than picking a lottery winner.

In other words, it’s much easier to win the jackpot online with sports betting than it is by playing the lottery. But there’s no harm in trying. We like to buy our tickets at The Lotter, which has lottery games from around the world. As they say, you can’t win if you don’t take part!

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Lottery

The form of lottery that’s played today in the United Kingdom has been around since 1994 and is definitely part of British culture. According to the latest lottery news, it’s said that 70% of British people play the lottery on a regular basis. Which is the same as saying 45 million people. That means that almost 50% of the population plays more than once a month and buys at least three lottery tickets every week.

Some UK Lottery Facts

The unbearably smug and lightweight Noel Edmonds, a minor British celebrity, hosted the very first lottery night. This was watched by over 22 million people on television. This was won by a total of 7 winners, with each winning £839,000. But for the first Lottery Millionaire, you had to wait until the following Saturday’s draw winners were announced. Of course, not all lottery prizes are claimed. Some people forget that they need to watch the draw on television and others have simply lost or misplaced their tickets. The largest unclaimed prize was a Euro Millions lottery draw and the lonely winning ticket was $63 million.

Unsurprisingly, the vast majority of lottery winners prefer to remain anonymous. When it comes to defying odds nothing comes close to a family from Tipton in the West Midlands, who managed to win the jackpot on three different occasions with prizes totaling £3.25 million. The odds of that happening are actually 350 billion to 1.

Advertising Lottery

The advertising used to encourage people to buy lottery tickets is very different from what you’ll find in the casino industry. In the UK it appears that almost anything goes, but the underlying theme is always a “rags to riches story.” On the whole, the TV ads promote a  glamorous lifestyle featuring sexy women in bikinis and fast cars. Also champagne, helicopters, yachts, and the fact that you can have it all. The sheer silliness and sexist nature of all of this is quite breathtaking considering. Especially when we’re meant to be living in the 21st century.

And that’s because the one thing the ads never tell you is your odds or chances of winning. Or they could simply compare how many losses there are compared to those who win the draw. And it’s not all unicorns and rainbows for the winners either. As over 70% of them will go bankrupt within 2 years. 

Conclusion: Lottery s Gambling

Whether you choose to go gambling at the casino or buy lottery tickets with The Lotter on a regular basis, the important point is that you shouldn’t focus so much on winning. In the casino it’s possible with some games, such as blackjack and poker, to use some skills and basic strategy in order to have odds of 50/50. But with the lottery, there is nothing you can do. Simply buy your ticket, cross your fingers, and then wait and see. 

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