Kunolo makes some excellent points about the National Lottery:
gemini://kunulo.smol.pub/2026-09-22-lottery
I have a neighbour, aged about 50, who has what I guess are moderate to significant learning difficulties. He lives with his father, has never worked although if the right kind of sheltered and closely supervised working environment was available then he would love to. He spends a great deal of money on lottery tickets, partly because he has nothing else to spend it on and partly because his father gives him more. He is rather excitable, and whenever we see him he very quickly starts talking about his winnings, or his dream of winning, asking what we would do if he won the jackpot, and what would we say then? We know what _he_ would do, because he has told us so many times, which is to go to America to visit the Dollyworld theme park in Tennessee.
His obsession with winning is obvious. His disability perhaps makes him more vulnerable to the false hope the lottery provides, and I'm not sure how far the harm that illusion causes is at all mitigated by the fact that his life is otherwise pretty empty, or that he does not suffer in any material way from spending so much. It's literally hundreds of pounds a month. He buys so many tickets that, through statistical inevitability, he wins a lot of small prizes, and this seems to give him pleasure, even if it only means he can buy even more tickets next week. That sounds like the kind of gambling addiction I've read about, and he's a vulnerable person to begin with. I find that especially troubling.
The broader position and prominence of gambling in this country, including online betting, machine-based gambling in betting shops, the advertising of betting on TV and radio, and the sponsorship of sports teams and events by gambling businesses, is unacceptable. The gambling companies can and do point to the safeguards and warnings they have introduced, but that hasn't stopped many people getting into debt, suffering from mental health issues, relationship breakdown, even the loss of their homes in some cases. Betting shops are a feature of every town, and they must provide a small amount of employment and they pay business rates, but the online parts of those businesses are, in many cases, based abroad and it's difficult to see any benefit to society from them existing. There's no point banning them, because betting would then become a clandestine activity carried out by criminals, but at the very least TV, radio and online advertising should be banned, like it was for tobacco nearly 25 years ago.
Email: kdan01 [at] posteo [dot] net