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A lottery is the plainest sense is an activity that typically involves the drawing of numbers at random for certain prize money. While some governments and nations condemn and outlaws gambling, others endorse it even to the degree of setting up a state or national organization for its facilitation. The act of gambling is usually regulated to some degree by different governments and the most common regulations are in terms of age and that vendors must be licensed before they can sell tickets. In this article, we will consider the proprietaries of the lottery and examine some of its gambling parameters.
Lotteries (Lottery games) are dynamic and they come in diverse formats. For instance, the prize to be won can be a fixed amount of money or some good. This way, the organizers are open to some risks in the event that the tickets are not sufficiently sold. This is because the prize fund is usually a fixed percentage of the deposits. One of such popular arrangement is the 50-50 draw where the organizers of the lottery activity promote that the prize fund will be 50% of the revenue from tickets sold.
A lottery is any activity where the participants play in anticipation of winning a prize, in full or part. Gambling refers to lotteries whereby the participants can play and win money. Therefore, gambling is a form of lottery and vice versa. Betting involves staking on a predicted outcome of certain events. All these three activities sure look similar. However, there are salient differences among them and we will consider this in careful details.
Betting and gambling demands that participants set aside some amount of money in staking power. For example, sports betting requires that you plan your resources carefully. Apart from this, you also have to make calculated predictions and gain ample knowledge in the kind of field or sports you are participating in. This is hardly the case with lottery.
Lottery is purely a game of chance whereby you buy a ticket based on your choice of lucky numbers and then you will have to wait for the draw to know the outcome of your play. The numbers are picked randomly by a lottery machine and then the winners will emerge. What this means is that the outcome is predicated solely on chance and this is quite different from the case with betting where some measures of analysis may influence the outcome of the event.
Another point of difference among these three is the amount of money you stand you after the outcome must have been announced. In a gambling or betting event, you amount of money you can potentially generally depends of the amount of money you put in. hence, you can significantly increase your winning margin by increasing your stake in the game. That also works for the amount of money you stand to lose as well. However, the case is different with lottery. There is always a fixed amount of money to be won and usually a fixed amount of the price of tickets too. Thus, if the organizers of the lottery game put the lottery ticket price at $10 and the prize funds at $,5000, then the highest amount you can win is the said $5,000.
The brutal honesty is that the stacks are weighed against the players and the odds of winning the prize money or the jackpot are just too high. Thus, lottery may not always be considered as a financial wise adventure. However, there is a good chance that you know this already, and even if you lose your ticket money on an unsuccessful lottery game, you will most likely not think much about it. Besides, there is probably no harm in risking a small amount of money on the off-chance that you might become incredibly rich. This is wise, if you don’t go ahead buying a ridiculous number of ticket or trying incessantly to push your luck. Throwing your luck once in a while in the dream just for a measly $2 that could yield potentially more is not a wanton affair. Apart from this, there is also the interpersonal aspects to think about. A love of people participates in lottery just to avoid the fear of missing out (FOMO). It is certainly not uncommon to hear people who participate in lottery activities not primarily because of the potential winnings, but basically because of the fun and excitement that comes along with it.
Next up, we will consider the significance of lottery activity across the major world religion as see how it holds up.
Lottery is categorically frowned upon in the Islam religion and it is considered as a Minor Shirk mainly because of its potential for addiction. However, many Muslims, even the pious ones still believe they can play lottery games especially the state-run lottery games without the accompanying guilty conscience because they believe it does not have the same potential negative impact on the players unlike other types of gambling, such as sports gambling. Thus, it can be said that most Muslims do not consider lottery in the same way as traditional gambling is regarded because it is usually a one-off affair to them.
In a stricter sense, all kinds of gambling, whether is staking money on a horse race, sports betting, card games, or using gambling machines are forbidden strictly under the Islamic Law. It is categorically mentioned in the pages of the Holy Quran that gambling is unallowed by the Beloved Prophet and it is considered a major sin.
The position is Islam is also very similar to what is obtained in Christianity as well. Copious pages from the Bible reveals the religious sentiments of the Christian Religious Leaders which mostly tend towards eschewing activities that encourage and promote fast and sudden wealth. Also, just like in Islam, Christians also believe Lottery is not very ideal because of its addictive tendencies.
Can lottery be classified in the same category as an investment? Hardly so. First, investment usually involves taking risks that are economically necessary or prescribed. For instance, a pharmaceutical company may attempt to create a new drug that no doubt has an unavoidable level of risk involved. In such a case, individuals or organizations may share in the risk by buying the share of the company’s stock in the hope that the drug will strike gold and produce profitable returns. However, things may go the other way and the funds invested will vanish. In this case, such risk is unavoidable and efforts from the investors may have little or no influence on the success or failure of the enterprise. However, the same cannot be said for gambling or lottery. This is because the associated with lottery are jointly created by the lottery company and the gambler himself. Thus, the risk in the kind of situation can be classified as artificial and maybe, unnecessary.
Should you decide to participate in lottery activities, it is very important that you entrust your money with trusted organizations and companies because there are a lot of sham establishments out there. That is why lottery players, especially those who are quite new to the lottery industry should check in at our Lottery Comparison Page to find detailed reviews about Lottery sites that are worth their salt. Apart from this, you will be able to find concrete information on the status of lottery in your State and the attitude of your state government concerning it.
Conclusion: Is Lottery Good for Me?
This is quite a personal opinion but we think the lottery is quite a harmless activity if not taken to the extreme. Everyone relishes the thought of incredible wealth and it is certainly not a bad idea to give it a shot every now and then. If you are going to participate in a lottery event, it is best that you do so with trustworthy establishments, that is why it is important for you to check up our page of Lottery Comparison and operators. You can also check up our detailed article on how you buy lottery tickets online.21+ and present in VA. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER.