CW: Discusses gambling addiction.
I had a gambling problem. Still kinda do, honestly, which is a big problem when you’re broke like I am.
I came up with the idea of running my own lottery. I can “buy” a ticket by putting 12p in my savings account. 10p gets added to the prize pool when I do. I pick three numbers from a pool of 16, and that’s my ticket.
Every night, at 5pm, I draw three numbers plus a bonus ball. Two numbers wins me 50p. Two plus the bonus is £1.50. Matching all three is the jackpot, which is three-quarters of the current prize pool. If I win, I get to withdraw that money from my savings and blow it on whatever I want to celebrate my win.
All the tickets that don’t win anything get put into a monthly draw that I call my Last Chance Lottery. There’s one more draw at the end of the month. Match all three numbers with a ticket, and the 12p cost is refunded. Right now I have 82 tickets in that draw. I’m already regretting this decision, it’s going to be a nightmare to go through them. I should’ve used a spreadsheet. I didn’t use a spreadsheet.
Yeah, right now the process is very manual. I’d love to automate it, and it’s on the radar as a potential Fulvous Top project, but for now, it lives on pieces of paper on my desk and a lottery machine app on my phone. I can always fiddle with it, increase the pool of numbers a bit and bump up the prizes. Maybe have some SuperDraw events. Loads of ways to keep it interesting.
And, of course… I’m never actually losing any money. The money goes into my savings account. Shit hits the fan, I can just pull it out and spend it. But, in the meantime, it’s scratching the gambling itch very nicely. :)