LIFE'S LOTTO

I read something rather disturbing in the paper yesterday.  This is not unusual; most of what we read these days is disturbing in different ways, and this particular piece of news seems rather low in the ‘disturbing’ pecking order, when placed alongside the awfulness that is Syria, and the possible consequences both of supporting the USA proposed intervention; thereby invoking the wrath of Russia who could then start a nuclear war; or of not supporting Obama, thereby allowing the Syrian regime to believe they have got away with their use of chemical warfare, which could well encourage them to further atrocities, even the future use of nuclear arms.

And then of course there’s the disturbing conduct of the current regime in Britain, who seem to think it’s fine to scare disabled people half to death with the threat of withdrawing their allowances, with the rest of the ordinary working population also scared about their very existence as they are exploited right left and centre, powerless against the employers who now think it’s acceptable to work them to death with the threat ‘You’re lucky you’ve got a job’

Then there’s the housing shortage and the lack of school places which many believe is largely due to excessive immigration from just about everywhere, especially the EEC, which is about to get much worse… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg named ‘Disturbing’.

But, as usual, I digress.  The article that got my goat in the Sundays was about the National Lottery, or The Lotto as we are encouraged to call it, in the friendly manner of the adverts.

For many years now, an ordinary one line Lotto ticket has cost £1.  For this it got entered into one of the two weekly draws which take place on Saturday and Wednesday. For all those years, people have been investing in this lottery (and I use the word advisedly), week after week.  Many have their regular numbers, which they sincerely pray will not come up on those weeks when they forget to buy their ticket .Many families and friends and groups of work colleagues form a syndicate, enabling them to buy a larger number of tickets between them, giving more people a chance to win.

Hope is what people are buying with their £1.   For a large element of the population, their lottery tickets are the only hope they have.  With so many out of work, or in work and heavily exploited, yet unable to keep up with their bills any more, just once or twice a week a small ray of hope lightens their mood, and sometimes it is rewarded.  Jackpots vary according to money taken in, but is usually a couple of million for getting all six numbers, with graduated payouts according to numbers matched.  The lowest still is £10 for 3 numbers.

The Lotto Lords are now proposing to raise the amount of the jackpot and tweak the smaller wins (some up, some down), by DOUBLING the cost of a ticket.

At a time when most of us are on our uppers, not knowing how we are going to sustain our standards of living which are already at rock-bottom, they are expecting people to double their Lotto expenditure.  Okay, you might say, buy less tickets.  Sounds easy.  But if you have been playing the same numbers for years, how are you going to choose which lines to drop?  Can you imagine the despair when, having made that decision, your old, and now abandoned, numbers come up on the first week of the new arrangements?

Will some people just cut back on essentials – like food – to maintain their Lotto chances? Suicides have increased greatly in the last couple of years;  I personally know of 3 people who have taken their own lives in the last 6 weeks, and there have been another 3 ‘incidents’ at local railway stations, one just today.  Of course I don’t know the exact circumstances that compelled these unfortunate people to this, but I know that some of them were driven by economic reasons.

The National Lottery say that the majority of players are in favour of the changes.  Well, they didn’t ask me.  Nor anyone I know.  

It is so obviously another form of social engineering approved by our millionaire rulers.  By increasing the jackpot, and probably decreasing the number of players, they are making it more likely that just one person will be given a life-changing sum of money; whereas if the Lotto was organised so that several people received say one million pounds, a life-changing sum for the vast majority of the population, imagine how many people will maybe stop work.  But would this not be better for the country at large, with a larger number of people having the ability to actually spend some money and help get the economy going again?

It seems to me the Government and their rich mates would rather retain their positions of privilege, and by doubling the cost of a ticket, they ensure once more that only the rich can easily continue to play their numbers, and rake in more gold to join that already sitting uselessly in their coffers, providing neither jobs nor work for anyone.

Just like poor old ERNIE, the Premium Bonds, which started off with just about everyone being able to purchase one bond now and again for their child’s birthday and the like, and now can only be bought for £10, with a minimum first purchase of £100, the Lotto is becoming the privilege of the rich.

This is the ‘Land of Hope and Glory’. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

 Let them eat cake. Plus ca change!