The National Lottery is celebrating its 15th birthday today.
There were many controversies in the run up to its launch. Would it encourage gambling and result in more problems of gambling addiction? Would it be a welcome source of funds for good causes or would it provide an excuse for government to cut its funding? Would the profits for the operators dwarf the money given to good causes? Would it be a welcome new source of revenue for local shops? And so on.
So, fifteen years on: what do you think?
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14 Comments
Are you going to set up a vote on it, to replace the pointless personality Brown/Cameron poll?
Well cant really say anything. Its again a National Lottery its gonna finish its 15th year this time. I would also like to vote. Well its a secret and m not gonna whom m i gonna vote for this time.
It would not be worth the effort to abolish the national lottery now, but I opposed it from the start and I think it does more harm than good.
The difference between the national lottery and general taxation is of course that the national lottery is voluntary. If the national lottery in all other respects is a form of taxation, then we would notice that it is regressive; that the poor pay proportionately more than the rich into it.
So why do they do that? No doubt for many it is “just a bit of fun”. Fair enough. However for some it is out of desperation – it is their only hope of getting the money they need for whatever reason.
But surely by now they must know what they are doing? True again for the vast majority of people. But for gambling addicts, whether from the national lottery or some other form of gambling, clearly their judgement is impaired, and the consequences for that individual and his family can be devestating.
This impaired judgement is fueled by the way the event is promoted. The slogan used to be “It could be you”. When the government funds a health education program where it presents the facts, it get accused of behaving like the “Nanny State”. But when private companies (or in this case the govennment, somewhat unusually) use any gimmick to get you to buy something which has nothing to do with making a rational choice.
So if I were running an education campaign, rather than an advertising campaign, my slogan would be “It won’t be you”. Instead of buying a lottery ticket, you might as well throw the money down the drain. And if you want to give money to charity, you give more by giving to them directly. Your payment does not get syphoned off into running the lottery network, or by paying the extortionate wages of the National Lottery Management team.
It is odd how it is that taxes are bad, but buying lottery tickets is something to be encouraged. The whole business model replies on the vast majority of consumers making a net loss of income, which of course is the same as what raising taxes do.
Logically then people buying lottery tickets must be harmful to the economy in the same way?
I have no problem with lotteries funding the arts or good causes.
I object to government-organised gambling, and to lotteries being used to fund public services.
The National Lottery should be privatised and the operator should continue to publish what proportion of the money goes to which good causes.
@ Tom Papworth – The National Lottery is run by a commercial company, which is chosen after a competitive tender process every seven to ten years.
The people who run the competition to choose the operator are the National Lottery Commission and they publish how much goes to the good causes quarterly on their website: http://www.natlotcomm.gov.uk/CLIENT/content.ASP?ContentId=234
The lottery is a voluntary stupid tax. Liberals shouldnt be in the game of stopping people from wasting their money. If people want to waste their money that’s up to them.
I buy a lottery ticket occasionally. They are good value; for £1 I get several days of fantasies about what I will do with the money if I win. That’s pleasure on a par with spending the same money on bars of chocolate or wine, but without the health risks of over-indulgence. People who buy lottery tickets know what they are getting, and they are not stupid.
The humourless, morally supercilious puritans who who criticise lottery ticket buyers should look at their own expenditure and ask themselves how much of it is actually necessary, and how much is is simply for personal pleasure. If you never eat sweets or junk food, never drink alcohol, don’t own an IPod, never buy fashion items, in fact never buy anything that is unnecessary for your own physical survival, then go ahead and criticise, and I pity your miserable joyless existence.
One thing I do really object to is the Lottery good causes money being spent on things that hould be coming out of taxation
I have no problem with the lottery funding the arts as long as the money is also spent on encouraging the (mainly) working class people who pay £20 per week towards their tickets (trust me I used to sell them) to participate in them at reduced prices.
I am a recovering compulsive gambler with more than 18 years free from the addiction and have published a book on how I recovered, Gripped by Gambling (www.grippedbygambling.com). I also have an on-line newsletter that is read all over the world, Women Helping Women (www.femalegamblers.info)
Sincerely,
Marilyn Lancelot
I would like to see the national lottery abolished for many reasons, but mainly because governments should not encourage people on a massive scale to gamble, i find it quite disgraceful how the company operating the national lottery has permeated it’s way into peoples daily lives with government backing.I could go on for ever but that’ll do for now.
Hasn’t the lottery substantially changed from what was envisaged as regards what constitutes “good causes”. Now the money is used for more “core” areas of government spending than the arts/leisure stuff it originally funded. Certainly I see a lot of cricket pavilions with lottery plaques from 1996-2000 but fewer in recent times. It was the subject of one of the few public statements of John Major since 1997 (and he was unusually bitter about it I thought)
Maybe I am being silly and deluded here but I really miss the old National Lottery theme tune, it was catchy not like the new one. I actually think it is money better spent on a lottery ticket than on a packet of cigarettes, many poor people smoke and that is more crazy than spending the money on a ticket that may change your life. A Price of 20 Marlboro at my local shop costs over £6.00! Plus you are paying to make yourself ill and it is fire hazard, but if people want to smoke ok trouble is passing smoking happens to be dangerous. With the Lottery as long as you dont get into any money troubles playing it is ok. I do think though that the money raised gets wasted.
In my vieow I have big problem with national lottery and I care for peolpe who are lives with government and thire spend 20 pounds a week