My team at work has a syndicate for the Euro Millions, which as part of the team I throw a couple of quid a week in for as part of the team. I'm well aware of how low the odds are of us actually winning anything more than say, a tenner (which between 10 of us on the team, is not really a return but it goes in to a pot for a team treat such as coffees or the like), but I figure less than £4 a week is not going to kill me. In London, that's cheaper than a pint of Guinness and most lagers. Aside from the syndicate which I do more as a "part of the team" thing I don't play the lottery.

I don't gamble much at all really, it's not my bag. I think with one exception, I've never even played a pub reels gambling machine. Although on that one exception I put a quid in which was 5 spins of the reels at the time and won the jackpot of £25 on my 3rd which meant I certainly was lucky as hell and I cashed out straight after. On the rarest of all occasions when someone has somehow managed to drag me not only in to a casino, but also through some miracle managed to make me gamble (which is 2 occasions, 1 for a stag-do and the other for a birthday) I've played blackjack, on those instances through luck, skill or chance I've come out either breaking even or slightly ahead (on the stag I managed to come out about 50 quid up on what I entered with).

The worst feeling in the world however, is when I'm sitting there chatting with the guys in the office about something like an upcoming sports game and they're talking about the odds on the bets and I'm like "Ah well **insert prediction of outcome** is sure to happen" and there's great odds I'm literally left gutted when the results come in and my mates are all like "Man, so should have put a punt on that, you'd be up by like £60 going in to the weekend on that" Though when one of the consultants took my prediction and it paid off he certainly brought me a few drinks (he'd gone in on a fiver and come out with about 90 - 100 quid).