The lotterys in this country are to benifit charity, so, instead of a couple of people only winning, the rest losing, every one wins. A $5 ticket returns $3, there is no big winner, so problem gambling is solved, and no one feels bad for losing, money for charity. It is a win win situation.
-- hexan, Sep 23 2002

Gambling http://www.dictionary.com/search?q=gamble
Self explanatory [Mayfly, Sep 23 2002, last modified Oct 17 2004]

The lottery cannot dish out more money than it collects so under this system, everybody who buys a ticket will lose out (or, if you take out the charitable contributhions, break even). Net result: there's no incentive to buy.
-- calum, Sep 23 2002


Errrr. Have I missed something? See link...
-- Mayfly, Sep 23 2002


Hmm! So let me understand this correctly. I give you $5 and you give me $3 in exchange which makes me a winner? I think that perhaps you need to consult a dictionary hexan and look up the meaning of 'winner'. Either that or open a second-hand car dealership.
-- DrBob, Sep 23 2002


Maybe what you should do is divert some of the lottery procedes to charity, some to public services, absolutely nothing to winning pot and the rest to a media campaign to rebrand "winning" as the process of paying £1 for a bit of paper, then sitting in front of the TV waiting for some numbers to be read out. If the campaign was suitably determined it might be successful enough to make a portion af the lottery punters actually feel much happier because they have "won".
-- namaste, Sep 23 2002



random, halfbakery