Next week’s Super 5 jackpot has grown to over Lm500,000 (e1,164,686.70), the highest ever prize in a local lottery.
Punters dream of guessing the five drawn numbers on Wednesday, and many are already making plans how to use the money they win. Office mates pool in to have a better chance of winning something, while many prefer to play on their own to be the only winners. The chance is that with so many people trying their luck, there will be more than one winner.
But, as in anything else, there is another side to the coin that needs to be considered.
The Chamber of Small and Medium Enterprises has been requesting the government to make a move to limit the jackpot to reasonable figures, as each time it grows business is affected negatively.
It made this request last week, when the top prize was Lm450,000, and repeated it when last Wednesday there were no winners and Maltco Ltd, the company licensed to hold lottery games, upped the main prize to Lm0.5 million.
The GRTU claims that such an increase will mean another week of low business which, at the height of the Christmas season, risks jeopardising all that shop owners have been working for in the last months.
When the Super 5 lottery used to be run by the government, there was a Lm200,000 cap to the top prize, and each time there was no winning ticket, people who guessed three of the five numbers had their prize doubled, sometimes tripled. The GRTU is calling for such a cap to be reintroduced because the more the Super 5 jackpot grows, the more shop owners feel the pinch.
One can understand why the GRTU is protesting so much. There have been several occasions in the past when other entities complained – in fact, organisers of fund-raising activities always prayed that the Super 5 jackpot is low when their event is held, as this affected the contributions that are made. This is because people spend more on Super 5 tickets and spend less on other items.
But this leads one to think about another matter – which is perhaps more serious. The question that needs to be asked is this – how is the growing Super 5 jackpot affecting families, in particular those families where one or more members have a gambling problem.
There are people who buy a few Super 5 tickets each and every week, irrespective of what the main prize is. There are others who buy tickets only when the jackpot grows. And there are others who buy more and more tickets as the weeks progress and there is no winner.
While, in the majority of cases, people buying Super 5 tickets know their financial limitations and play according to what they have in their pockets, there are others who unfortunately spend more than they afford.
Sometimes they go as far as taking out loans to gamble (and not only for the Super 5 lottery), and then have to pay the consequences of their irrational behaviour. The problem is exacerbated when they leave their families without the basic necessities in order to satisfy their urge to gamble. All in the name of trying to fulfil a dream, but often this turns out to be a nightmare.
These are the problems that a growing jackpot brings about. And, while there is no law that stops Maltco from raising the stakes, it must be pointed out that the system adopted in the past – that is when there was a limit to how much the jackpot could grow – still meant that there was a sizable prize to be won. Secondly, more people were happy to win more money for guessing three numbers.
The government has so far not intervened on the matter, in spite of the GRTU’s exhortations. Does it intend to?