Bets and Gambles

I was having lunch with my colleagues today when an Indian man selling the
lottery tickets approached our table. This scene was not unusual, not was it
illegal.

I think what caught me by surprise was the amount of tickets my colleagues
bought. I don't think it's wrong to buy; I bought 2 tickets myself. I buy
lottery tickets for fun, not in vain hope of striking a million ringgit.

I remember there was once someone who expressed her disdain of people who
spent so much money on lottery tickets; up to RM50 a week. I've never
personally met anyone like that, because even the people I know who buy
tickets only buy one or two at a time. I finally saw someone like that
today.

One of my colleagues was buying on behalf of her father; she wanted to claim
the end stub which had struck a matching number, so the Indian man said she
can have four free. So in addition that four, she bought ten tickets with
sequential numbers.

Another two colleagues bought 2-3; and yet one more also bought about 3
leaving only just enough money in his wallet to pay for his lunch.

Incidentally, the night before, another group of friends had just spoken
about the addiction of gambling; people who pump money into machines, and
running out of cash, would put them on their credit cards, or getting into
ridiculous debts with loan sharks.

As I was sitting there watching money change hands for the fourteen lottery
tickets, I couldn't help thinking that winning RM12 was pointless, if it was
going back into buying useless lottery tickets. It's like you never won
anything in the first place.