If you really think about it, you’ll find an amazing number of life’s situations that are inherently risky. Nearly everything someone does is some form of online gambling. Even with such mundane act of getting up and going to work, increases one’s prospects of being killed in a transportation accident. In face of today and everything you know about investing, whether it is in business, an asset class (stocks, bonds, real-estate, cash and commodities), or index fund, even in its most basic element, it is nothing more than “betting” that someday tomorrow will probably be better with pleasant expected returns on investment; or possibly 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 almost any money market really is, legalized gambling, per se. You can look at investing in terms of chart formation, or you put your hard earned money in the utilities anticipating once they are “due”, you cash in or again maybe not; or you choose to have any one of 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’s not gambling, then what is? Basically, you are betting that in 5, 10 or 15 years from now there will be lots of individuals, buying more stuff, utilizing more energy, reliant on more gadgets-with hope that you could cash in; or possibly not. You are basically “betting” on all of it.
So it really is, with the lottery-a form of gambling with origins in Florence, Italy, where the first lottery was held within the 16th Century, then called the Lotto de Firenze, and quickly adopted by other Italian cities. It became a national lottery, and still known today as the Lotto in Italy, as also adopted and called in many other countries, such as the United States. The lottery, as a form of government-licensed gambling, involves drawing of lots for a wide selection of winnings as well as for the massive jackpot prize. Gambling, like poker, blackjack, roulette, sports betting and racing, can involve skill or just chance alone; however the lottery doesn’t require any special skills-set to play.
As with any risk, there’s always something at stake. Even if you choose to take the risk of starting a business, you stand to lose money, time as well as your reputation. The same things you stand to gain when you take the chance to start your own business. The lots you buy to play the lottery are today within the type of tickets and the prize is often a big sum of cash. The draws are random and every player has an equal chance of winning the major prize which often grows really big with massive roll over jackpots.
