P567ORACLE 567 Mon 3 Mar C4 1713:15
1/6
A nation of
gamblers?
One Saudi prince reputedly lost $1m in
a single roulette session in Las Vegas
during 1984. When was the last time you
had a flutter and was it worth it, asks
Sue Gorska?
Gambling can mean anything from buying
a raffle ticket or playing bingo to
staking vast sums of money on a horse
or your luck at cards. Every year some
£2,000m of 'consumer spending' goes on
gambling, but the way we dispose of
this money is changing. Traditional
forms of punting like bingo and horses
are losing out, it seems, to fruit
machines and casinos.
more follows >
Your Money ...560 Holidays ...580
P567ORACLE 567 Mon 3 Mar C4 1717:22
2/6
A nation of
gamblers?
Is Britain really a nation of gamblers?
In 1983, 72% of us bought a raffle
ticket, 43% did the pogls, 31% put
money in a fruit machine and 31% had a
go at newspaper bingo. 27% of us had a
flutter on a horse, 4% on a greyhound,
12% played bingo and 1% roulette.
A Mintel report, published last year,
found that ordinary people are, in fact
gambling less. The average day attend-
ances at bingo halls went down by 5% in
1984. The money spent on football pools
went down in real terms from 1974 to
1984 and the number of licensed betting
offices also decreased.
more follows >
Your Money ...560 Holidays ...580
P567ORACLE 567 Mon 3 Mar C4 1708:54
3/6
A nation of
gamblers?
Fruit machines and casinos have proved
to be exceptions to the rule that
gambling is in decline. Although
comparatively few Britons visit casinos
around half the cash 'spent' gambling
each year goes there ─ roulette, black
jack baccarat. In 1983 this was £1,218m
21% up on the previous year, due mainly
to punters from overseas.
When, in 1978, a Royal Commission
worked out the rate of retuqn fgr money
'invested' in the various forms of
gambling, top of the list came casinos.
97½% of the stake money is returned as
winnings after tax! For slot machines
the figure is 70%.
more follows >
Your Money ...560 Holidays ...580
P567ORACLE 567 Mon 3 Mar C4 1714:42
4/6
A nation of
gamblers?
Most bets are for small sums, with 63%
of us risking £1 or less, 27% between
£1 and £5. Only 1 in 100 have placed a
bet of £50 or more.
What can we hope to win? The Book of
Money Lists says that the world's
biggest gambling win was $5.5 million
made in the Pennsylvania weekly Lotto
game in 1982. Littlewoods top pools
prize is now £900,000. Nonetheless, the
biggest ever win for most punters is
between £5 and £50 and only 3 in 100
have ever won over £500.
more follows >
Your money...560 Holidays...580
P567ORACLE 567 Mon 3 Mar C4 1722:05
5/6
A nation of
gamblers?
Of all the forms of gambling, doing the
football pools remains the most popular
in Britain ─ over a third of adults
have a regular flutter this way.
However, the average dividend paid out
by members of the Pools Promoters'
Association is just 26.9% per £1 staked
with the main regular winner on the
pools being the Inland Revenue! It
takes 42½% of the stake money in tax.
In 1978, the Royal Commission called
the tax 'unjustifiably high' and
recommended that it should be reduced.
It was increased, instead, by 2½%!
more follows >
Your Money ...560 Holidays ...580
P567ORACLE 567 Mon 3 Mar C4 1728:26
6/6
A nation of
gamblers?
There's special interest gambling tog.
City punters are in a class of their
own, willing to risk around £200 a
point on the direction of, say, the FT
30 Share Index. Big horse races can
bring the nation's closet gamblers out
of the cupboard. Two million adults a
week back a horse but the Derby can
boost this to some 14 million.
There's always the hope of a big win...
or two! Just a fortnight ago, a New
Jersey woman won her second prize in a
state lottery ─ taking her total prize
money to $5.3m. Don't get your hopes up
though. The odds on this happening wgrk
out at one in 17,300 billion!
more follows >
Your Money ...560 Holidays ...580