Playing the lottery is a great way to put a little entertainment factor into your life. Buying a lottery ticket brings us a bit of fun “hopefulness” that maybe by the powers that be up, down, or elsewhere, will bless us with luck and let us win the jackpot. We know that the likelihood of that happening is almost nil, but that doesn’t change our hope of beating the odds against us.
However, some of us go beyond the entertainment aspect and end up viewing the lottery as a solution to our current problems, not our future security. Winning the lottery could let us buy a new car to replace the beat up old clunker we have that seems to break down with something new every week. Winning the lottery would enable us to move into a beautiful large home instead of the tiny apartment in the crappy neighbourhood we are in now. Winning the lottery would pay off all of our debts so we can finally be debt free and not having to cringe every time the phone rings and there is a collection agency on the other end.
Most of us do this type of thinking but shrug it off and go on with our lives as usual. There are simply fleeting thoughts in our minds and we really don’t obsess with them. If we win the lottery, then we are happy to put our immediate plan into place. If we don’t win the lottery, it’s not a big deal and doesn’t our lives in any way. We know the odds, we know the probable outcome. And we are ok with that.
But there are some players who, unfortunately, go beyond this and they end up “living for the lottery, but are not gambling addicts. There is a big difference between actual lottery addiction and the need to be living for the lottery. Lottery addiction is a totally uncontrollable obsession of having to win the lottery jackpot at all costs, regardless of what happens or who gets hurt. Living for the lottery is a controlled action of having to buy at least one ticket once a week in the hope that you win the lottery. You are not addicted and can control your spending. You won’t blow your money or go into debt, or borrow to buy your ticket. However, you make sure you have stashed away a couple of dollars or so each week to get at least that one ticket.
With living for the lottery, the goal is to buy your ticket and wait for the draw. You really hope you win, and it doesn’t have to be the jackpot. Any amount would help you out, and really, if you can just win enough that takes care of your current situation, that would really be ok and make you happy. And when the draw happens and you don’t win that needed amount or more, you buy your next ticket as soon as your can and anxiously wait out the week, which puts you on a tension-filled life.
Playing the lottery should be looked at as entertainment in which you buy a chance to win money. When you end up actually “living for the lottery,” you are on a slippery slope to sliding into possible lottery addiction. If you are currently living for the lottery, confide in family and friends, call gambling addiction services, and tackle it before it becomes a bigger issue. You will need to go from “living for the lottery” to “living for yourself”