Dear Editor,

Gambling exploits human vulnerability and folly. People tend to be vulnerable to slick, but untrue, ads regarding gambling.

Cash pot asks you to choose a number from one to 36 and says your chance of winning is 36 to 1; that should be 1 in 36. The company also says enticingly, “The more you wager the more you can win.” That’s not entirely false if you imagine the last part as meaning “…the more you can possibly win”. The truer reality is this: The more you wager the more you stand to lose.

Sure some will choose the right number and win, but most will not and must lose. The gaming people are thus banking on the gambler’s greed and folly.

The increased number of draws per day does not benefit the average gambler, but it definitely benefits the coffers of the purveyors of chance, as more carelessly handled funds are vacuumed out of the hands of poor or rich foolish people.

The ‘pick this, pick that’ option is a major hoax which exploits ignorance and greed; the more balls you have, the fewer chances you have of picking the right numbers and, worse, of picking the right sequence. Getting the right sequence of numbers is really crazy, if no number is repeated, because to know your risk you have to multiply the number of numbers times the numbers from that in descending order down to one; eg, if you have two numbers to sequence, you multiply 2×1 = 2 , with 3 numbers it is 3x2x1 = 6, now try 4 numbers to sequence, the odds are 4x3x2x1 = 24 to one against you. Try 10 numbers, it’s 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 = 3,628,800 to 1 against you. This is if you are sequencing all of the numbers in the game. To sequence a few numbers, within a pool of numbers, is even crazier and involves more complex maths.

Take it from me, as a cardinal rule: If they tell you that the harder options pay greater dividends, hear them saying the harder options are easier to lose on, so “keep yu likkle money to yuhself”.

By the way, why do we allow a lottery draw on national TV to trump an address to the nation by our prime minister? In which self-respecting country could that take place? Is the TV station that beholden to the gaming company and that disrespectful of our prime minister’s office?

Rev Clinton Chisholm

clintchis@yahoo.com