Editorials

Gambling with the nation's health?

The initial enthusiasm that greeted the National Lottery is giving way to cynicism in the face of bad publicity. The controversy about the payment of almost £13m for the Churchill archives¹ was followed rapidly by the suicide of a man who had forgotten to buy his ticket²; criticism by the Public Accounts Committee of the £20m cost of distributing funds³; publication of unexpectedly high profits by Camelot (the lottery's organiser)⁴; and, finally, the evidence of the personal problems associated with large winnings and, especially, the much publicised disputes in a family that won £18m.⁵ While these dramatic events have captured the headlines, there is also a growing recognition that a system that takes a net £50m each week from the public may have adverse effects on society.

If the lottery widens inequalities of income it will . . . [Full text of this article]

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This article has been cited by other articles:

• Middleton, J., Latif, F. (2007). Gambling with the nation's health. BMJ 334: 828-829 [Full text]  
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