Gambling

I always say that I watch very little television, but that's not quite so true as it used to be. I've discovered the Yesterday channel, and I'm hooked on programmes like Abandoned Engineering, The Architecture the Railways Built and Murder Maps. I watch all these programmes on a live or catch-up basis throughout the month, but particularly in the week that starts on the 20th of the month, when I have the opportunity to binge. Why so? Because my monthly BT Mobile Data allowance of 40GB expires on the 26th and renews on the 27th. It makes sense to use up as much as possible of that 40GB in the week before it's wholly gone. So I am fairly sparing with it up to the 19th, then I take the brakes off for the final few days to the 26th. Assuming that I really do want to settle down and stare at a screen for hours. I usually want to do other things.  

Here's my data usage for the month to 26th February, to illustrate what I mean:

I'll watch live programmes on the steam age TV via the satellite dish and Freeview. But catch-up TV is watched on my laptop, tethered wirelessly to my phone, and therefore tapping into my monthly 4G Mobile Data allowance. Hence my need for a fairly hefty allowance! (If you're a regular reader, you'll know that I had my landline disconnected, and my Broadband stopped, some months ago. Using 4G instead has worked out very well, and it saves me money)  

The Yesterday channel is devoted to a wide range of historical topics of one kind or another. Abandoned Engineering, for instance, looks as various man-made structures and artefacts around the world and tells the story behind them, including why they are now abandoned. These programmes examine things like Cold War missile silos, model prisons, factories, ghost towns in the desert, Mulberry Harbours, tunnels, dams, bridges, and even a huge gun left high on a mountain ridge in the Alps. You don't have to be an engineer or some kind of scientist to be interested - I'm most certainly not. But I still find it compelling. The human stories that go with these cast-off endeavours are more than half the fascination. 

There's a slight downside, of course. There are ads. If watching the catch-up version of these programmes on UK Play, most of the ads are eliminated. But the live version will be full of them. In fact in an hour's viewing, a quarter of the time is spent feeding you advertisements for this and that.

As you'd expect, the type of ad varies with the time of day and the assumptions made about who might be watching. At any time, there are a lot of ads clearly aimed at people who are short of cash, and who aspire to a better life funded with money from gambling, or playing a lottery. These ads make passionate betting look normal. They also suggest that betting is exciting, slick and stylish, and very likely to produce a life-changing win. Whereas only heavy losses should be expected. 

I do not know why it isn't frankly admitted that it is the betting and lottery companies who make the real money, and not the hapless and exploited punters. 

I think gambling is addictive and should be severely discouraged. People are all too susceptible to suggestions that money, in the form of a big glamorous gambling win, will make their dreams come true. I was very struck with one ad that showed a group of young men watching a football match on TV. They were more concerned with getting their bets on, and watching to see whether they might have won, than appreciating the actual game. Well, football will die if it becomes merely a vehicle for another bet. Not that I actually give a monkey's about football, but even I would consider it a shame if a national pastime got ruined by gambling. 

Another series of ads caught my attention. Lottery ads. One showed a dazed but deliriously happy family holding up a huge cheque for £500,000 or so. It was plainly aimed at the kind of folk who yearn to magic away their grey lives by winning money, oblivious to the fact that they'd have to be fantastically lucky to secure a win large enough to make any difference. 

I think it's borderline fraudulent to give the impression that easy money can be had with so little effort and with so much certainty. If people reflected that (a) someone's big win is paid for by most people not winning, and that (b) the lottery company will in any case take a fat share and heartlessly not care who wins, then perhaps they wouldn't throw away their hard-earned cash. 

Sadder still was the lottery ad that showed a much larger amount being won - £20 million I think - and a couple (the winners of this huge sum) embracing themselves in glee. Oh dear! One hardly needs to speculate on the outcome. The win will destroy their marriage, and probably set everyone touched by it at odds with each other - children, friends, and neighbours all. Who can handle so much money, if not used to it? Even if you keep quiet about it, the need to strive will have gone, and so will the need to act wisely. For if a few thousand get wasted, how can that matter? From there it's very easy to slither into foolishness. 

There might be the odd winner who seeks proper advice and invests in future financial security. There might be the odd unselfish winner who ensures that their community benefits, and not them. But most people will splash out on expensive objects of desire - all too soon to be expensive white elephants, causing arguments and recriminations. And if the big win is instead shared out among the family, they will all face exactly the same issues, only with less remaining after the initial spending spree.     

It would be so much better to win a nice, tidy amount that wasn't too large - so that it could make some modest dreams come true, but without inflicting harm. 

I've thought about this, and to my mind £250,000 or so would be a good figure. I could handle that. It wouldn't change me, nor would it alter my circumstances so much that my life was fatally upset. How would I spend it, given that I'm already retired and don't need to build up a pension fund? 

I wouldn't buy a new car straight away; but at some stage, when the electric car I want is finally being made, I could spend £60,000 on it. 

A new caravan? £25,000. 

A new central heating system for the house, using ground heat? £20,000. 

A new larger kitchen with modern appliances, incorporating a rebuilt conservatory? £40,000. 

A new bathroom? £10,000. 

The garage converted into a proper utility and storage space, with a new door into the house? £10,000. 

New triple-glazed windows and modern thermal insulation? £30,000. 

Solar panels? £20,000. 

Redecorate throughout, including replastering? £30,000. 

That all comes to £245,000. So £5,000 left to add to my savings account. Or to spend on a fabulous week somewhere. 

Well, that was a really good plan! Except that I need to win £250,000! And I don't gamble, nor play lotteries. I knew there was a flaw.