LETTER: Instant thrills hold no fears
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.From Mr David Rigg
Sir: Dr E. Moran's letter (18 April) on the subject of Instant scratch cards merits some response. While naturally there may be comment that some people could become addicted to instant games, as indeed they may to horse racing or alcohol, there seems little evidence that this is other than a potential danger for relatively few unfortunate people.
Scratch cards have been available in this country for many years, and prior to the advent of the National Lottery were selling a total of some £50m each year, sometimes with top prizes of up to £25,000. Very little concern about them has been expressed to date.
The largest Instants game market in the world is in France, with sales of around £l.8bn annually. Few people would characterise the French as being a nation of addicted gamblers. Here the number of tickets sold each week is large because up to 30 million people are playing the National Lottery, in one form or another, spending probably about £3.50 each on average.
Yours faithfully,
DAVID RIGG
Communications Director
Camelot
Watford
19 April
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments