If you really think about it, you can find an extraordinary range of life’s situations which are inherently risky. Nearly everything someone does is some type of gambling. Even with such mundane act of getting up and going to work, increases one’s probability of being killed in a transportation accident. In face of today and everything you know about investing, be it in business, an asset class (stocks, bonds, real-estate, cash and commodities), or index fund, even in its most basic element, it’s nothing Read Significantly more than “betting” that someday tomorrow will probably be better with pleasant expected returns on investment; or maybe not. There is just one big risk you should avoid and that’s the risk of doing nothing and not taking your chance.
Come to look-at it in face value, investing in any money market really is, legalized gambling, per se. You may look-at investing in terms of chart formation, or you put your money in the utilities anticipating when they are “due”, you cash in or again maybe not; or you decide to have any among the hundreds of analysts culling spreadsheets or fund index investors work on the fundamentals of investing for you in manufacturing, real estate, cash and commodities-no matter what your reasoning for that, if that is not gambling, then what is? Basically, you are betting that in 5, 10 or 15 years from now there will be more people, buying more stuff, utilizing more energy, dependent upon more gadgets-with hope that you can cash in; or even not. You are basically “betting” on all of it.
So it is, with the lottery-a type of gambling with origins in Florence, Italy, where the very first lottery was held within the 16th Century, then called the Lotto de Firenze, and quickly adopted by other Italian metropolitan areas. It became a national lottery, and still known today as the Lotto in Italy, as also adopted and called in several other countries, such as the United States. The lottery, as a type of government-licensed gambling, involves drawing of lots for a wide selection of winnings and for the massive jackpot prize. Gambling, like poker, blackjack, roulette, sports betting and racing, can involve skill or just chance alone; though the lottery won’t require any special skills-set to play.
As with any risk, there is always something at stake. Even when you opt to take the risk of starting a business, you stand to lose money, time and your reputation. The exact same things you stand to gain when you take the opportunity to start your own business. The lots you buy to play the lottery are today in the form of tickets and the prize is often a large sum of cash. The draws are random and every player has an equal chance of winning the key prize which often grows really big with massive roll over jackpots.
