Lotteries

People were flooding in and out of the lottery, their faces lighten up, expectation in their faces. In their hands were small pieces of paper, with numbers written on it. They would soon grab a newspaper as soon as they could to look at the newspaper columns announcing the results of races and draws. In every of those gamblers' mind was the hope to strike the lottery, to live the rest of their lives with only the money they won as its sum was so huge, to buy a bangalow, to spend the money won for luxurious activities, or anything that they could think to use the money for.

Indeed, such scenes are not vague to the minds of people nowadays. Everybody knows how a lottery looks like. Inevitably, many people are attracted to gambling, to the prospect of striking a fortune. But, time and time again they lost their gamble, lost their money they bet on, giving it again and again to the lottery owner. But, today, even after people found how disastrous the consequences of addiction to gambling were, we still see people flooding at lotteries.

Why is this so? The answer is not difficult to find: after gamblers lost money on gambling, they would want to get back the money lost, to get back what was originally theirs. They believed that if they strike a fortune on gambling, the money they won back would be able to make up for the money they lost, so they keep going back to the lottery, even after losing many times. Their spirits were not dampened by the prospect that they may not win a single gamble even if they gambled for their whole lives. They do not just hope to strike the lottery one day but they expect they would strike it immediately.

Nowadays, many people are addicted to gambling. Addiction to gambling is almost the same to addiction to drugs, addiction to video games, or addiction to smoking. The only significant differences between these things are that the things people are addicted to are different. Addiction brings terrible consequences, including family and marital problems.

I have interviewed my father for his point of view on lotteries. He mantained that as long as lotteries are gambled moderately and you do not get addicted to it, it is alright to gamble once in a while. Everyone hopes to strike a fortune, to be rich, that is all too natural and acceptable. Even I, for one, wish to be rich, like many people out there. Some people hope to achieve this by gambling once in a while, hoping that maybe they will be rich, though it is a distant possibility. It is natural for people to have dreams, but people who are not addicted to gambling understand that it is very unlikely to strike a lottery, but the only practical way to achieve dreams like becoming rich is to do it the hard way. For example, if you want to be rich, you have to study hard. Obtaining excellent academic results will flourish your career prospects, so that you will be able to acquire a job with a large salary. With a large salary, you will become rich. People addicted to gambling, on the other hand, believe in making fortune in just a mere night, which is unpractical, I will say.

My father was not a compulsive gambler, but he buys lottery once in a while.

"The dream spurs you on and give you hope that you can be a millionaire,"My father had said, after being asked why he still buys lotteries once in a while.

I, for one, oppose to gambling vehemently. Why buy lottery when you know you have a very slim chance of striking the lottery? You are wasting your money, just giving your money to the lottery owner in exchange with a vague and unlikely hope of striking the lottery. Furthermore, if you continue to gamble so much, you may be in debt for borrowing money from others. The situation would be unimaginable if the gambler happens to lose his bet and have no money to pay his debt.

Not only this, gambling will also cause family/marital problems. In reference to a video in youtube, an increasing number of women are also becoming addicted to gambling. Melanie Morgan almost ruined her marriage just because of gambling. She left her infant child to babysitters while going to gamble. This shows how distructive gambling can be. She admits, that just 1 bet, would be able to make her go back to her gambling habits. This shows that gambling is very addictive.

Before anyone wants to refute my stand on gambling, I leave you one question to ponder on: why would anyone want to open a lottery if he or she has to provide money to people, but not getting money from the people to make profits?