News on the Health Lottery
I don’t play any lottery, but I am not in favour of Richard Desmond’s Health Lottery.
So I just wanted to see what others thought and typed Health Lottery into Google News.
So what did I find?
There are a lot of articles about hospices worried that they will lose money. There was this piece from the Yorkshire Post for example. And quite a few more too, in the same vein!
This article in the trade magazine, The Grocer, wasn’t very optimistic about sales for their readers. Good!
The only positive articles I can find are in rags, like the Daily Star and the Daily Express, papers which are owned by Richard Desmond.
But this is balanced by articles in more serious papers.
Let’s hope that the good people of the UK soon realise the real purpose of this lottery, which is a money-making scheme for its owner.
I shall be following this story with interest.
I’m also boycotting shops that sell the tickets for the Health Lottery. As that includes W H Smith, Sainsburys, Morrisons, Tesco and Asda, I now can only do my grocery shopping at Waitrose or Marks and Spencer. I could include the Co-Op, but they don’t have a decent shop near me.
The Anonymous Widower 
Like you, I disagree with this lottery, as I do with the National Lottery and with scratchcards etc. They are often a hidden tax on the less well off, since they are often the people who buy the most. I have seen people who I know do not have much money spend large sums of money on scratchcards, and then any winnings they just immediately buy more scratchcards.
Where I can I try and shop in local privately owned shops, and I do feel sorry for some of the local newsagents etc who dont want to sell tickets but know that if they dont, people will go somewhere else, taking the rest of the business – newspapers, sweets, drinks, cigarettes etc with them, risking the shop owners livelihood.
Comment by liz | October 16, 2011 |
One of the findings of a serious gambling study, some years ago, was that quite a few delivery drivers and others who drove for a living, would take their lunch break in a betting shop, which sold coffee or a soft drink and perhaps a sandwich. They might then have a small bet after reading the form, which if it won, they would collect later. It surprised me at the time, but I’ve since confirmed that a lot of betting shop punters use them as places for light recreation and a chat and a moan. Most of this type of punter have a daily or weekly limit. The great advantage is that you don’t go over the drink-drive limit.
As to small corner shops. My paper shop/grocery sells the Nagtional Lottery, but he won’t touch the Health Lottery, as he has heard reports that the technology is unreliable. He may be right, but he certainly doesn’t sell it or want anything to do with it. He also thinks that sales of the Express and Star are falling.
If the Health Lottery does fold, a certain satirical magazine will have a field day.
Comment by AnonW | October 16, 2011 |