LOSERS

I buy a lotto ticket each week. I buy into the fantasy of rags to riches. I would like to have the security of having money in the bank and not having to be concerned about how much money is coming into the household each week to cover the outgoings. Who wouldn't? My fantasy of riches though is not having a flash boat and fast cars (although I would like to give a Maserati a spin). No, my dream is to be equity and cash secure to be able to give of my time voluntarily to use my business and life experiences to help others. And, if I had enough cash, to be able to set up trusts that I could administer to help worthy causes. Now that would be truly rewarding.

I am pissed off at the current Lotto TV advertising campaign. You know. The story about the guy on the yacht who loses his Lotto ticket in a storm and his dog Wilson jumps overboard to retrieve it. Wilson returns home after a while to find that his owner has moved on and so gives the ticket to a down and outer. OK. Fair enough. The yacht owner probably had insurance, lives in a comfortable house and has found a new companion. The down and outer needs the dosh. But, the down and outer , as seen in the follow-on ads in the story, has embraced the selfish. me-me values and wastes the money on flash cars, planes, women and god knows what else. Where are the values?

Mind you, this not a one-off in dodgy values for Lotto. Remember the odious advert that told the story of a soldier being taken in and protected by a comely young (French or Italian) lass who safeguarded him from Jerry? When he won Lotto years later he went, flowers in hand, back to that place and, when she eventually came to the door he saw that she was now an old and not very attractive woman. He hid the flowers and scarpered. Laugh? No, not funny and Lotto and its advertisers should know better.

"Pick me. I'm a silly old bastard and a lech to boot"