The lottery

It may or may not escalate to spending ridiculous amounts. If you wish to keep the demon alive and risk lottery escalation and/or relapse of your main vice that's up to you. I know people who have gone into full-blown casino/slots relapses due to continuing to dabble in lottery tickets or scratchcards. Is it worth taking that risk in order to do something that is probably a 'take or leave it' thing for you at the moment?

More than anything though, it's the fear of winning. It's that first initial 'big' win that gives birth to CGs. Even regular people winning the lottery struggle to deal with it, many end up bankrupt and ruining their lives and relationships, some even end up dead. A CG winning the lottery? No win is ever big enough. Usual sized bets will no longer be enough. Just play a little of the winnings, because hey it's free money right? And as with every other previous win, it all goes back in, extra quick. More regrets and chasing ensues, except now at far larger stakes. It only ends one way.

I’ve often wondered the same about the lottery.

Personally, I don’t play it. I never have done. Mainly because the odds of winning the lottery are almost impossible.

But as a compulsive gambler, I’ve often wondered what would happen if I did play the lottery one day and I did win!!!

Would I feel as though I’d reached the summit and never gamble again? Knowing that I could be set for life if I invested it wisely....

Or would I continue to gamble?

(already I can hear your answers...)

All of a sudden, £5/£10 bets wouldn’t cut the mustard.

Heck, £10,000 bets wouldn’t really do much either.

For me, I’ve always gambled to try and win a bit of extra money. To try and treat myself possibly.

I’ve never really played for the ‘buzz’. Yes, the ‘buzz’ is there but I’ve never primarily played for it. I’ve played to try and enhance my finances.

If I were still in gamble mode, I can’t imagine my mindset to gambling if I already had millions from a lottery win.

I’m not saying for one moment that I wouldn’t gamble. (I probably would). But I can’t see how I’d want to without the money incentive.

I’d like to imagine that I’d replace the buzz of gambling with holidays and lots of other cool things etc.

I carried on doing the lottery when I first came here...Looking back now, I can say with absolute certainty, it was my way of “staying in the game” disguised as a misguided attempt @ being normal. I can also say that as a consequence, the biggest urges I have faced have all been wrapped around its products...Having drawn the line on fruit machines/FOBTS I was able to accept that was THE END as far as that business went.

Some 2 years plus later, I handed over my last lottery ticket to the cashier, expecting what I had come to expect from all my gambling escapades & wasn’t disappointed (it lost)...I reset my gamble free date & marched myself off to GA where my recovery actually started.

Can I abstain from machines & still do the lottery? Yep. Was i recovering? No!

I’m only @ the start of my journey & haven’t figured out exactly how to replace the buzz yet but given that gambling hurt me way more than it ever excited me for years, I’m starting to realise that the buzz was probably just part of the fairytale my addict brain fed me everyday! I no longer want to win the lottery so that I can gamble more, I’m calmer & happier & better able to manage my bad days because life isn’t skipping through daisy fields, it gets tough sometimes but the tough stuff happens to the super rich too so money couldn’t fix it!

As someone once told me, as an addict, my pilot light is always on...I don’t have to ignite it!

So, rambled on there but for me, now, lottery & all it’s associates products are a resounding no-no!

It does nothing for me. The odds are just ridiculous but yeah, I can understand the attraction.

However, I remember all too well the only time I gave up gambling for a long period of time, it was 12 odd years ago. It started with the odd lottery ticket, harmless enough in itself but it soon led to scratch cards, not many but that’s not the point. What I didn’t realise back then is that I had opened the door to the vampire. Slowly but surely other forms of gambling followed and before I knew it I was back into it like never before.

Ideally no but I suppose there has to be some consideration for when it’s just a few quid a week in a social syndicate (as opposed to buying them on your own for yourself). But be aware if you do, you are dancing with the devil. My advice would be no, stop altogether, don’t do it.

look in the discussions section for more on the lottery

I think the dangerous thing about the lottery is that it seems the one thing that gives the green light to be a gambling society. Always there in the background It doesnt help the case for gambling regulation

You know...... if the lottery is ok then everything is ok. I understand the odds and it leaves me cold. Im glad to say that because I ignored the odds on my method of trigger gambling. The thought of even buying a ticket bores me rigid and thats because I firmly associate it with a waste of my time and money

Having said that I know of three people known to my family who have won a huge amount of money. I think my honest feelings are that I dislike the winners because it brings out feelings of jealousy and confusion that I normally control.

It actually began to depress me that when I gambled on the lottery I only won £10 on very rare occasions. I think it made me go back to the fruit machines and step it up. After money came out, I would say to the arcade attendant that I never won that on the lottery. I would use the delusion that I was better doing this than the lottery as I ploughed thousands into slot machines.

My father puts a pound on when he can. Has he a problem...No and I understand a one off ticket to try a get a life changing amount. He is pretty much anti gambling so its interesting that the lottery has become the acceptable face and only form of gambling for him

I think the question of everybodys lips is would I consider it a relapse if I bought a ticket. The answer for me is no even though it is technically a break in full abstention from gambling. I discuss whether Im attracted to any form of gambling with family and the lottery has never been my trigger. I know enough now to talk about it openly and I understand the addiction more than ever. I think I can monitor signs of wanting to dance with the devil.

I have never gambled online and there are obviously plenty of slot casinos online. I am never complacent but do now see patterns and what my triggers were. I dont honestly think buying a lottery ticket would start me on any rocky road again.

I firmly see trigger patterns and I can tell you it wouldnt be a good idea/acceptable for me to be in a stressful job driving past motorway slot machines. I am now sensible enough in that would generally be shut down on cash access because I would tell my partner and my family that is a strong risk.

Anyway I dont play it but Im just giving an honest answer about how I feel.

Best wishes to everyone on the forum

Totally agree with everything that’s been said, the only thing is me and my mate do a set line each on the euros which works out at £5 a week each, don’t do the lotto anymore, but normally do an extra lucky dip or 2 on the euros. One good thing that has changed is that usually I’d be in bed on a Friday praying that we would win something big as usually I would blow a big chunk of my pay on the Friday online, it’s a strange old feeling not having much care for the lottery, the dream used to be that if I’d win big then I’d go back to all the sites that I’d lost on and teach them a lesson and win big! How ironic! I now know that I’d never win! Strange how the old gambling mind works...

I think the fact the already microscopic odds of winning the lottery were hugely reduced without a corresponding drop in the price of a ticket tells you all you need to know about the lottery and those who run it.

It might be worth considering why you feel the need to leave this or any door to gambling ajar.

I agree with you Lethe. There is way way more chance if me dying in a road accident on the way to buy a ticket. Indeed I read there is way more chance of the Queen calling round for a brew...being an astronaut and so on.

The honest answer is the feeling of a couple of pounds and everybody else is playing it for a life changing amount. Not missing out which they use strongly in the marketing so it is the feeling of leaving that door slightly ajar. It is the slight feeling of that amount would clear all my past gambling losses. the feeling of wanting to be normal again with something related to gambling. the feeling that you could not approach my father and say he has a problem so why cant I be "normal" again in some way...what is normal?

"It could be you" is a licence to print money for the gambling industry.

Its extremely unlikely ever to be you doesnt have the same ring to it

Anyway I dont play it but maybe you could say its the dark thoughts of chasing all my fruit machine losses. I suppose you could term it as an urge brewing even though my feelings are slight. However it never has been a trigger to waste all my rent and spending money.

I stand by my view that certain areas will trigger us and other things wont. with what i spend on snacks and fripperies its hard to see a few pounds a week as a problem. That is a difficult thing to mention on a recovery forum

Best wishes

.......sorry duplicated post

Don’t get me wrong, I have been as deluded as the next person but have to say if anyone here is still putting good money into lottery tickets they need to have a word with themselves. Are as well to put what you would spend on tickets aside instead and at the end of the year treat yourself / your partner / your family to something tangible. Whether it’s the lottery, horses, fruit machines, dogs, FOBT’s, bingo, scratchcards or whatever you are simply wasting your time and just keeping those pie in the sky dreams burning. You can’t win, you won’t win and this is why - ‘we can’t win because we can’t ever stop’.

Hey everyone, so lottery is coming into a problem I see..

Hiya... ive just stumbled across your thread. It got me thinking. I started a thread many years ago called "reasons not to play the lottery" Ive resurrected it in the debates and discussions section, for anyone who's interested. Regards to all.