A lotto killjoys

I am dismayed at the somewhat sniffy tone of recent letters from some of your correspondents on the subject of the National and European Lottery competitions.

From start to finish human life is a bit of a gamble; playing the lottery is really only a side bet on the overall outcome.

I enjoy checking my lotto and euromillions tickets; they bring a little excitement into my otherwise mindblowingly mundane existence as an old-aged pensioner in modern Scotland.

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My weekly outlay is approximately the price of a packet of cigarettes, of which in my youth I consumed at 20 per day. It is better to use your bank balance as a stake in the lottery of life than your health.

Some say I should carefully consider the morality of gambling and think of my failed 
attempts at winning zillions of pounds as a waste of money.

However, after checking out the amount of my taxes recently paid by the Scottish Borders Councils in data protection fines after its inability to safeguard Borderers’ personal data was detected, and its write-off of local taxes it failed to collect, my 
conscience is clear.

By way of balance, last week I won £90 on the Euromillions, which is better than a poke in the eye from a sharp stick.

Whatever might be said for or against playing lotteries, I remain convinced there is no other way to buy a dream for one pound, so I shall continue in hope of fortune, but not fame.

Jim Bradley

Thornfield Terrace

Selkirk

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