Lotto dream that costs players a packet

AS an average Joe Soap what are the chances of trying out for the Spanish Football team and securing a game in the next World Cup? Slim, hey! 

Or what about going to your bank manager and telling them to knock €30,000 off your mortgage?

Not a chance, right. So that’s why we don’t even bother and try in the first place. We know how ludicrous the odds of these things ever happening are. 

But yet when it comes to the lottery, where the odds of winning are ridiculous, for some reason we really do think we have a chance of becoming an overnight millionaire. 

Most of us have dreamed about winning the lottery. Surely it’s the answer to all our problems? Life’s financial worries could be alleviated with a huge sum of money. But it seems that such wishful thinking could also be adding to our woes.

The general public genuinely continues to believe that one day they’ll win big. An average ticket may only cost €2 or €3, which might not seem like much money when you’re handing it over at the counter, but over the course of a year that soon adds up. For those buying just one €3 ticket a week, this mounts up to over €150 of money – wasted – each year.

And that’s before even mentioning the cash spent on the big expensive draws like ‘El Gordo’ at Christmas. 

The lottery in Spain has a rich and interesting history with more than two centuries of tradition. Spaniards are fond of participating and are superstitious about their numbers to boot. But such superstition only encourages more spending, as those with regular numbers keep playing because they are so terrified that they will lose out on millions if their numbers come up after they give it up.

Winning big on the lottery is a pipedream. Statistics show that the chances of winning the typical six-ball Lotto draw stands at around one in 14 million. There’s probably a better chance of bumping into an eccentric millionaire in the street and them handing over all their millions to you. 

Money spent on gambling could be better spent, but the only good thing is that the lottery does generate cash for good causes. In Spain, lottery earnings are split on a 70/30 basis. That means 70per cent of the money is returned to players in the form of prizes, while the remaining 30 per cent goes to the State and to support social projects. Or so we’re told!