Cryptocurrencies are gradually finding their way into our everyday lives. Not so long ago, the idea of a digital currency that you cannot touch or feel seemed strange to many. For so long money has been tangible a tactile material that had a sense of value in its palpability.

We accept the value of coins and cash because we trust the system. After all, money has existed in a physical format for close to three thousand years. But to truly embrace cryptocurrencies we have to let go of the concept that money has to be palpable.

We already do this on a daily basis without realizing it. We get paid wages directly into our bank accounts. Then we go shopping with our debit and credit cards and perform digital transactions from our phones and PCs. We go and buy clothes online at the press of a button.

When we place a sports bet, play video slots or enjoy daily jackpot bingo games such as Dynamite Riches at our favorite casino site, we do it all without handling cash, even when we are winners of such a jackpot. We see the money leave our bank accounts and arrive in our casino wallet. Then we see our casino or bingo winnings paid back in and we accept the whole process without the need to see any physical evidence whatsoever.

But every now and then, we go to an ATM machine and withdraw cash. And we feel comfortable knowing we have money in our pocket. We are just that one small step away from discarding cash for good. So, in theory, walking into a caf a buying a coffee with a bitcoin-linked card or wallet should not feel unusual but for many, it still does.

Those who are already using bitcoin or other cryptos understand the benefits. They feel safe in the knowledge that their money is protected from fraud, theft and other crimes associated with cash. And they feel safe that they can carry out transactions anonymously.

Many of the traditional transactions mentioned above can already be performed using digital currencies. We can shop online with bitcoins and many online casinos and sports betting websites, as well as payment providers such as Skrill, already accept cryptocurrency transactions.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle is making digital currencies easy to understand. If people are going to accept cryptocurrencies as an integrated part of their everyday lives, they need to be able to participate easily and not feel left out.

Right now, bitcoin ownership feels like some exclusive club for tech-savvy people under a certain age, and looking into other cryptos, the market is even more niche. This can only change through better education about the benefits of these currencies and how and where they can be used on a daily basis.

With a global market, it is a slow process. But once people understand how cryptocurrencies can eliminate exchange rates and high transaction fees and provide a faster and safer service, we could see them start to replace existing forms of payment. We could even eventually arrive at a scenario where traditional banking systems are no longer relevant.

Instant crypto credit lines from only 5.9% APR - unlock your crypto-weatlh tax-efficiently, without selling it. Earn up to 8%interest per year on your stablecoins, USD, EUR & GBP. $100 million custodial insurance.Get started now..

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From Shopping to Gambling How Cryptocurrencies Can Transform Our Everyday Lives - TWJ News

The guys hit the Falcons report.

With the likely departure of Austin Hooper at the tight end position, can Jaeden Graham step up and fill his shoes?Mike said he hasnt seen enough of Graham to know. I didnt see enough of him last year. Bell said Statistically he did get on the field he had 9 receptions for 149 yards and 1 touchdown, certainly he will get a shot to win the tight end job.Will talked about Graham needing to be a dual threat tight end to win the job. He had the one game, the Tampa Bay game where he had that big long 53 yard catch to set up a touchdown. Palaszczuk said Hes somebody who has some speed, but the biggest question is can he be an every down tight end blocker. You want somebody who can block like Stocker and catch like Hooper, you dont really have somebody who can do both.

It was time for the Strong Arm Story

Steve Koonin joined Dukes & Bell.

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D&B Hour 4: Will Georgia Join The Gambling Community? - Talk Radio 1210 WPHT

CHIPPENHAM Town footballer Karnell Chambers has been sacked after he placed bets on matches including 300 involving his own club.

This week club chairman Neil Blackmore spoke of his sadness at finding out that the striker had been investigated by the Football Association and found to have placed illegal bets.

He said: It is against FA rules for a player to bet on any football matches but it was far worse that Karnell placed bets on matches he played in and as a forward could have an influence on the game.

Once we were told the facts we had no choice but to terminate his contract. We called him in for an interview but he did not say very much or explain why he was doing it.

I was surprised as he is a nice lad and no trouble.

On Twitter Chambers said: Been a great two years at Chippenham. Had many great memories thanks to all the support from everyone at the club and to the fans who believed in me every week.

Mr Blackmore said that after Chambers was originally suspended while he was investigated manager Mike Cook spoke to all the players in the dressing room before last Tuesday evenings game.

Mr Blackmore said: He told them what had happened and said that if anyone else had been gambling now was the time to own up. No-one came forward. We wanted the players to know the facts as otherwise they would have wondered where he was as they knew he wasnt injured.

Advice and support for players tempted by gambling is available through the FA and Mr Blackmore urged anyone tempted to get in touch.

He said that Chambers had three different on-line betting accounts and after the FA had become suspicious about his actions full details of all his betting habits were handed over.

A spokesman for Chippenham Town said on Friday: Karnells contract with the club has been terminated with immediate effect.

After consideration of the facts provided by the FA and interviewing Karnell, the board decided that placing bets on Chippenham Town games in which he participated, left the Board and Management Team with a complete lack of trust and confidence in the player and as such amounted to gross misconduct.

Whilst the FA are yet to make their decision on the matter, the club fully upholds the FA stance on not permitting players or club officials to place bets on football games, especially ones where they could influence the result of the game.

Chambers joined Chippenham in March 2018 and has been a regular in the starting line-up.

The sacking of Chambers highlights the problem of gambling in football. In a study of almost 350 footballers and cricketers conducted by the Professional Players Federation results suggested sportspeople were three times more likely than the general public to be problem gamblers.

High profile cases of footballers who have struggled with gambling problems include Joey Barton, John Hartson, Keith Gillespie, and Dietmar Hamann.

One in 10 sportsmen interviewed by the PPF said they gambled to fit in, one in four said they were encouraged by team-mates to do it, and nearly one in three thought their teams links with the gambling industry encouraged them to bet.

Originally posted here:

Chippenham Town player caught gambling on own matches is fired - The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald

The Gambling Commissions Young People and Gambling Report (2019)found that 11 per centof 11- to 16-year-olds had spent their own money on gambling in the week prior to being surveyed a higher percentage than had consumed alcohol or cigarettes.

Children also have unprecedented access to online gambling opportunities and advertising with half of UK 10-year-olds now owning a smartphone, according to Ofcom data.

Read more:Why we should never say just ignore it in schools

From the magazine:PSHE teaching: which approach works best?

Listen:Could Bananarama be the answer to social mobility?

It is therefore welcome that secondary schools will be required to "teach about the risks related to online gambling including the accumulation of debt"in secondary schools from September as part of statutory health education.

Learning on self-agency, managing peer influence, emotion regulation and risk management lay the foundations for topic-specific teaching.

However, given the complexity of the issue for example, the increasingly blurred lines between gaming and gambling primary schools should lay the groundwork, and new lessons and guidance from the PSHE Association and GambleAware and will support them to do so.

To help do this as effectively as possible teachers should be aware of some key PSHE principles that willinform their teaching.

1. Avoid one-offs: Consistent PSHE education that includes gambling prevention work is more effective than brief, one-off interventions delivered in isolation.

2. Build protective factors as well as teaching about risk factors: Lessons should deliver key knowledge, but also help pupils develop strategies and attributes to be able to apply this knowledge in real-life situations.

3. Promote positive social norms: Learning should aim to reduce the perception that gambling is something that everyone does yet should avoid stigmatising gambling.

4. Create a safe learning environment: Negotiate ground rules with pupils, make sure activities are distanced, questions are handled safely and suitable support is signposted.

5. Start where young people are: Lessons should be adapted to meet the needs of different school contexts and year groups, in line with pupils maturity and learning needs.

6. Dont set out to shock, shame or scare: Shock tactics dont work and can do more harm than good never try to make pupils feel afraid or ashamed about their own or others behaviour.

7. Dont provide a "how to"manual or inspire risky behaviour: Use personal stories and resources with caution input should never glamourise gambling or give pupils details about how to access, engage in or hide such behaviours.

8. Assess and evaluate learning: Its important to know if work has been effective build in activities that demonstrate or assess what has been learned to inform future planning.

9. Base learning on evidence of what works: Learning intentions must reflect evidence of what works and of safe practice effective training can help with this.

10. Embed within wider approaches: Plan ways to link gambling work with wider PSHE provision to maximise impact.

Much of this can be applied to various potential harms and risks taught in PSHE education, not just gambling, and can therefore be partly developed through teaching on other issues such as drugs and alcohol.

More specifically, though, a growing body of gambling prevention research and wider research and theory have identified a number of promising approaches to specifically address gambling related issues.

Research suggests that teaching on the following issues may be protective:

Further information about thisresearch and related approaches is available in the PSHE Association How to address gambling through PSHE educationteacher handbookwhich is freely available on the PSHE Association site alongside primary and secondary lesson plans.This work has been commissioned by GambleAware.

Visitors orexternal speakers can also play a role when chosen wisely. Their expertise and creative resources can add interest and a fresh voice on this important health education topic.

However, it is important to be aware of safe and effective practice guidance when working with visitors on any PSHE topic. See our guidance and podcast on working with visitors and speakers to learn more.

Anne Bell works for the PSHE Association. As a member of their subject specialist team, she develops resources and training to support schools PSHE education delivery

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10 effective ways to teach gambling prevention in PSHE - TES News

The advertising regulatory body in the UK has raised concerns that gambling companies could be using technology to make their advertising better targetted at vulnerable people. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has also urged the countrys gambling sector to make sure they target their marketing and advertising materials in a more responsible manner.

Speaking at the ISBA annual conference yesterday, the CEO of the advertising watchdog, Guy Parker, explained that one of the regulatory bodys most serious concerns is related to using special technology to better target their ads at people who may be at risk of getting addicted to gambling and may find it hard to stay away from compulsive gambling behaviour.

Mr Parker confirmed that the ASA is aimed at making sure that gambling companies are held accountable in case they are found to be using such technology to target gambling ads, especially when it comes to vulnerable people and underage individuals.

In fact, the ASA has already been involved in protecting British children from possible gambling-related harm. The advertising watchdog has recently been probing the targeting of gambling ads to children as part of its strategy to use technology in order to make sure a more proactive approach is used when it comes to gambling advertising regulation. Special avatars have been created in order to simulate childrens behaviour online, with the investigation finding that gambling adverts were shown to children 151 times and five gambling companies have violated the rules under which targeting underage individuals with gambling ads is prohibited.

According to the ASA CEO, such behaviour is common among a small number of gambling companies but, unfortunately, boosts mistrust in advertising in general. The fact that British customers have been literally bombarded with gambling adverts has raised the concern across all sectors that are advertising in the country, which could eventually cause problems for the advertising industry as a whole.

As Mr Parker reminded when it comes to gambling advertising, it is not just adverts in commercial spots aired on TV, such advertising also involves sponsorship agreements in professional sports, football shirt sponsorship deals, as well as football championships being sponsored by gambling operators.

Lately, some anti-gambling campaigners have been calling for the British Government to be more proactive and make sure areas such as gambling advertising are better regulated. The ASA has also been hoping to see more support from the Government for the work it already does to regulate the sector, along with the UK Gambling Commission. Furthermore, the advertising watchdog has revealed that it has no desire to be provided with more statutory powers to regulate the sector.

In any case, funding has been an area where the Advertising Standards Authority has been insisting for change, as it believes larger money investments are needed to regulate the sector.

Olivia Cole has worked as a journalist for several years now. Over the last couple of years she has been engaged in writing about a number of industries and has developed an interest for the gambling market in the UK.

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The ASA Insists on Better Regulation of Gambling Advertising to Provide Better Protection for Customers - Casino Guardian

If youve spent any time at all researching gambling on the internet, youve noticed that theres a seemingly endless number of websites offering gambling information.

Youve probably also noticed that most of them offer aggressive, colorful advertising for online casinos, poker rooms, and sportsbooks.

What should you expect from a gambling information site? What makes one gambling info website better than another? How do you know whether you can trust a sites recommendations or reviews?

After all, it doesnt take a rocket surgeon to realize that real money online gambling webmasters have a lot of incentive to refer players to certain gambling companies.

This post offers some things to look for when youre deciding whether a gambling information site is legitimate or not. Not every site will feature all of these aspects, and just because a site is missing something on this list doesnt mean its not reputable.

Use this as a rough guide for comparing one portal to another.

I have a friend who used to edit a couple of volunteer-staffed website directories. Before search engines became so robust, humans had to list websites in various categories, and users would surf through those categories to find information.

Yahoo got its start as a directory. One of the directories where my friend worked refused to list any site that didnt include two ways to contact the site owner.

I think that might be a lot to ask of a gambling information portal, but I think an About Us page is a minimum expectation anyone should have from a site.

Anyone operating a website offering information to gamblers should publish a page that gives you at least a general idea of who runs the website and what the sites goals are.

How-to pages include guides on how to play the games the information site is about. For example, if youre visiting a site that purports to offer blackjack information, it should have a prominent page about how to play blackjack.

It should also include pages about how to play blackjack variations of the game, like Spanish 21 or Super Fun 21.

Some sites specialize in casino games of all kinds. In that case, you should be able to find a page about how to play any of the major casino games like blackjack, craps, roulette, slot machines, and video poker.

These sites should also offer how-to information around strategy, odds, and tactics. The idea behind a gambling information site should be to aid the customer in getting the most for his money.

You cant do that if you dont explain the details behind the games odds and the best strategies for trying to win. All of the above also applies to sites focused on poker and sports betting, too.

Some websites are intentionally designed to be static sites. They publish information thats meant to be evergreen, and their pages are never updated.

I think you should expect more from a gambling information site than that. You should have an idea of how often a site gets updated.

Most legitimate sites have a blog section somewhere on the site. Or theyll have a page devoted to updates where theyll explain which pages theyve updated and what theyve done to them.

Imagine a site that offers reviews of online casinos, for example. Suppose that this site never updates its content. How do you know that the reviews of the casinos are still valid?

Gambling companies change hands all the time. Even blackjack strategy changes over time to account for changes in game conditions.

Anyone reading a website is looking for answers to their questions. I think any page worth reading, especially a static page that purports to be a comprehensive look at a subject, should have a question-and-answer section.

Honestly, this is the easiest way for an online gambling webmaster to get ideas for content to update their site with. If you spend a little time in some gambling forums or just searching a major search engine, youll find lists of questions on specific subjects.

Not every site should be penalized with your disdain if it doesnt include questions and answers, but if youre trying to decide between a site that has a frequently asked questions page and one that doesnt, go with the site that does, all other things being equal, anyway.

Youll have no problem finding a gambling information site that offers recommended places to spend your money. Youll occasionally find a webmaster whos so sold on a specific property that he only promotes it and nothing else.

But a webmaster should participate in the web. And its called a web because its a web of links.

What Im getting at is that webmasters should link to other useful resources, not just to the businesses theyre taking advertising dollars from. Its usually easy to spot the difference in these kinds of recommendations, too.

i

Keep in mind, though, that some sites only offer recommendations to other information sites owned by the same company.

Thats a bummer, but thats the nature of the business. Since most search engines recommend sites in part by how much link popularity they have, aggressive marketers in some industries will be stingy when linking to other resources.

I dont believe surfers should reward that kind of behavior on the part of a webmaster when they realize thats whats happening. You might feel differently.

Every gambling information site Ive ever visited offered at least one review of an online casino, an internet cardroom, or an offshore sportsbook. Some sites consist of nothing but reviews of these sites.

The problem with most of these sites is that theyre not offering real reviews. These so-called reviews are just thinly-disguised advertisement pages. Theyre sales letters, not reviews.

How can you tell the difference? For the most part, you should assume that any review of an online casino is biased toward that casino. Thats the nature of the internet today. The question is HOW biased the review is.

Does the review use a lot of marketing language to describe the casino and its games? If it does, then its just an advertising piece, and you should move on.

On the other hand, sites that list the various pros and cons of a site has more integrity. If the negatives on a casino seem serious, then you might be reading one of the most legitimate reviews on the internet.

If you can find an online casino review that uses the first person singular instead of the royal we, you might have found a real person with a real opinion writing about a property.

But once a review starts saying stuff like, We thought the bonuses were amazing, youre starting to slip into advertising territory. These are all just rough guidelines to think about.

Theres no perfect way to differentiate legitimate online casino reviews from pure advertising.

The best information sites have a means of finding information you want on a site. Often, this is a search box where you can type in a phrase and find the appropriate pages on the site covering that topic.

Thats unusual, though, especially for online gambling information sites. A good solution is for a site to offer a site map. A site map is just an organized list of the pages on that site.

A good website has a good, simple, useful navigation structure, but a site map provides a broader overview of a websites pages than the navigation usually does.

When it comes to gambling information websites, buyer beware.

Of course, most of these sites dont offer anything for sale directly from their sites other than advertising. Theyre not selling the advertising to their readers, though, theyre selling that advertising to the casinos, poker rooms, and sportsbooks who want to sign up their users.

This tends to color the editorial policy for such sites. The degree to which this happens depends on the integrity of the operator of the information site. Ive met webmasters in the industry who cared about nothing but getting the most money from the highest bidder.

Ive also met webmasters who refused to promote any site that didnt live up to a strict code of ethics.

Use your own best judgment when deciding which gambling information sites to trust, but be aware of what to look for.

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What Every Gambling Information Site Should Offer - Online Gambling - BestUSCasinos.org

Many traders do not like to be accused of gambling. Butgamblers are exactly what we are:

-We place capital at risk onuncertain events.

-We have no control over theoutcome.

-There is no guarantee that wewill make money in the long run.

Clearly, we are gambling. So why the negativity?

One reason is because of the negative connotations of agambler.

We think of drunk, unkept and unshaven old men, sittingaround the bookmakers betting on horses, or feeding the FOBT machines and losingtheir cash.

But unlike gamblers, we are not losers.

Whereas in gambling, the odds are set for you (by the house which does always win in the long run), in trading the odds are set by us.

Think about it: we have control of our entry. We have controlof our exit. We have control of our emotions, control of our discipline,control of our position size.

Yet all anybody focuses on the one thing we cannot controlthe outcome!

Why the outcome is not important

The outcome is not important. It is in the long run do notget me wrong if in the long run you are not making money then that is aserious problem.

But if you have three bad trades, does that mean somethingis wrong?

Definitely not.

One reason many traders struggle to make money is becausethey consistently system hop. They try a few things, and tinker around, andthen when it stops working for a few trades they run somewhere else and trythat.

I am convinced you could give people an exact step-by-stepguide to making money and out of 100 people, ten might listen, five mightgive it a go, and one person might stick to it after a few losing trades (infact, I have you can download mystep-by-step guides here). This is why 90%+ of traders do not make anymoney.

It is not the competition from elsewhere that beats them. Itis the competition within themselves.

The struggle to control emotions, and the struggle to remain consistent, is astruggle for many traders. If you cannot get comfortable with a few losingtrades, then you are probably trading too big.

Position sizing

You need to manage your positions to a point where lossesare not outcome dependent. If you put 20% of your capital into a single trade then you can bet you are going to be very heavily invested in the outcome. Butif this was 2% would you be so bothered?

Position sizing is the key to trading success.

I have never heard of anyone going bust from trading toosmall. In every instance, the factors were either trading too large, or leverage,and huge unexpected volatility. Put them all together and you have the veryserious potential for a blown-up account.

Trading is gambling

This is something all traders need to accept. This is notinvesting where we are analysing the fundamentals and taking a position basedon sound research methods. This is pure gambling where we believe our tradingsystem will deliver an edge in the long run.

Backtest your methods, and if it does not generate an edgeand provide alpha then ditch it.

Because that really would be gambling.

Author Michael Taylors website http://www.shiftingshares.comcontains a number of tutorials on how to trade and invest as well as his freebook How to Make Six Figures in Stocks.

Originally posted here:

The Shifting Shares View: Is trading gambling? - Value The Markets

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Gaming Innovation Group Inc. (GiG) and PokerStars have signed an agreement where GiG will supply its proprietary affiliate monitoring and compliance software, GiG Comply, to PokerStars affiliate operations worldwide.

In a continuation of PokerStars efforts to stay at the forefront of responsible gaming, GiG Comply will become a key component in ensuring that members of Stars Affiliate Club, the affiliate programme for PokerStars, meet heightened advertising criteria across regulated markets.

GiG Complys proprietary self-service technology scans and analyses thousands of web pages to ensure affiliates continue to meet advertising regulations, as well as the standards set out by the operator. The technology also provides detailed reports, including links, brand mentions and images, keeping the operators affiliate department continuously up to date on the content delivered to their affiliates audiences.

We work closely with our affiliates to ensure that the content delivered to their audiences is compliant and responsible, and meets the same high standards expected of the PokerStars brand, said Rebecca McAdam Willetts, Associate Director, Group Public Relations at The Stars Group. GiG Comply adds a new dimension to those relationships and controls, and we look forward to seeing the technology in action.

Richard Brown, chief executive officer at GiG, says: We are very pleased to have signed PokerStars to our portfolio for GiG Comply. Assisting them in compliance efforts ensures they remain at the forefront of responsible gaming.

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European Court of Justice Rejects Challenge to Italian Gambling Taxes - European Gaming Industry News

Fitzgibbon has his eye on Labors leadership should the chance arise. Joyce is in the process of undermining Michael McCormack with a view to replacing him as leader of the Nationals.

Why not stage a blue for the audience? Show a bit of fire and lip for the judges - Joyce going at Labors target of net zero emissions by 2050; Fitzgibbon repositioning himself as the man to defend his partys modern policies.

At least this charade was mildly entertaining.

Less so has been the over-familiar nonsense concerning Budget forecasts.

Every year we are subjected to the deception that political leaders can predict where the economy will find itself in a years time - or, for that matter, in the next several years.

Its called the Budget. This forecasting becomes even more skew-whiff when an election is in the offing, which is precisely where we all found ourselves last May.

Even by the standards of modern politics, last years effort was risible.

The jig's up: Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and PM Scott Morrison in Question Time on Wednesday.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

The Morrison governments big bang in the weeks before Australians cast their votes at the federal election was an assurance that the Budget had delivered a surplus.

It wasnt true. The Budget was in deficit.

All Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg had done was take a deep breath and predict that they could deliver a surplus ... a year ahead.

They had to do something. They were facing an election without any policies to speak of and a recent history of leadership madness.

History shows they won the election, of course. Or Labor threw it away, take your pick.

Nevertheless the surplus was, if not an outright falsehood, at least premature.

Back in Black, screamed the Liberal marketing material next to a picture of a tremendously self-satisfied Scott Morrison. The first Budget surplus in over a decade.

The closest Morrison got to an admission that he had made up the claim was during a so-called debate in the lead-up to the election, when he strangled his tenses almost out of existence after he was tackled on the idea that the Budget had actually delivered a surplus.

I said we brought the budget back to surplus next year, he offered, acting surprised at the guffaws that ensued.

Is it much of a step from such blithe trickery with the language to the corruption of a sports grant program for political purposes or the $10 million handout to the North Sydney Olympic Pool, even though that money was from a program established for regional and remote areas?

It was barely a blink of the eye before the Liberal Party was selling coffee mugs emblazoned with the Back in Black artwork. A snip at $35.

The 2019 Budget delivers the first surplus in more than a decade. Mark this event with the official Back in Black mug, the Liberal Party shop blares.

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Ten months later the Prime Minister, having gambled, is in danger of becoming the mug.

Settle down, he ordered journalists this week who insisted on asking about the future of the increasingly shaky surplus hed promised.

Hands up those who thought there was going to be a coronavirus epidemic when the Budget was released last May, he pleaded.

Quite. As William Shakespeare pondered in Macbeth about the business of predicting the future: "If you can look into the seeds of time, and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then unto me."

We might sympathise with a Prime Minister grappling with the economic fallout of Australias bushfire disaster and now the prospect of a pandemic.

But desperate pre-election forecasts have a history of backfiring.

Remember Wayne Swan? His 2010 Budget for the Rudd government was a sensation.

He was going to bring in a surplus within three years, a mighty three years earlier than forecast. Come hell or high water, he trumpeted.

This was courageous, as Sir Humphrey of Yes Minister fame might have said. There hadnt been a Labor government surplus since the Hawke-Keating effort in 1989-90.

Perhaps Swan was suffering a surfeit of self-confidence, having overseen Australias books when it survived the Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008.

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But here two years later in May 2010 was Swan, like Morrison last year, going the whole 10 yards and claiming he had actually delivered a surplus.

He hadnt. And never would. Falling revenues and the failure of the Resource Super Profits tax forced him to abandon his promise in December 2012.

The Coalition opposition was merciless. It was proof Labor couldnt be trusted to tell the truth or run an economy, hollered opposition leader Tony Abbott, promising to "pursue the government every single day until the next election on its failure to deliver the surplus".

Ten months later, the Rudd-Gillard government Swan had served was swept away.

Then, as now, there was less to political theatre - and Budget promises - than meets the eye.

Tony Wright is the associate editor and special writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.

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Predictions and promises: gambling on a surplus is for mugs - The Sydney Morning Herald

Lotto New Zealand's biggest ever jackpot must be won this Saturday, but the hype and allure of riches will hurt problem gamblers, advocates say.

The first division powerball prize has reached $50 million, sparking a flurry of ticket sales and endless conversations and dreams about what could be done with that much cash.

But the prize has also lead to concern, as the Problem Gambling Foundation knows the extra excitment will encourage people to spend more.

Pesio Ah-Honi, the director of Pacific Services at the Foundation, says that although Lotto is less harmful to the community than pokie machines or other online games, it does take money from families who can't afford it.

She predicts the $50 million jackpot will encourage people to gamble money they can't afford to lose.

"We do see an increase in spending with the jackpot increases, we see an almost addicition-like behaviour that people don't normally display," she says.

Ah-Honisays powerball is less addictive than other forms of gambling, as it delays gratification.

But in recent years, the Problem Gambling Foundation has seen an increase in people worried about their Lotto use, she says.

SCOTT HAMMOND/STUFF

Gambling harm experts are worried about the $50 million Lotto jackpot.

"When a jackpot is so high, it tends to get people thinking they need to buy more to be in to win. There's potential risk of people spending more than what they can afford," she says.

There's a $150 weekly limit for spending on the My Lotto website, with a $500 monthly limit.

ButAh-Honisays that is too much for some families. "For a lot of people,$150 a week on Lotto is $150 more than they can afford."

"We are always concerned that people who can not afford it will buy a ticket. Their families are going withoutbecauseof money being put on powerball this week."

Lotto offers services to help addicted gamblers, including a 'self-exclusion' form to ban yourself from Lotto stores.

On the site, users can block themselves from playing certain games.

In statements, Lotto encourages people to play only for fun. "This isallabout having fun, being informed and knowing your limits," it says.

University of Auckland professor of biostatistics Thomas Lumley said the chance of getting the winning numbers - all six Lotto numbers plus the Powerball - was 1 in 38 million per line.

GAMBLING ADDICTION HELP:Gambling Helpline - 0800 654 655 or text 8006.Problem Gambling Foundation - 0800 664 262 or help@pgfnz.org.nz

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'Families are going without': Problem gambling advocate's concern for $50 million Lotto jackpot - Stuff.co.nz