Premium Bonds (UK residents)

Well bank interest is crap, and my ISAs are dying due to me buying them the day before the September 11th attrocities.

So... um.... Premium Bonds? Better than the bank? Risk free? Opinions?

Bank interest might be low, but at least it is higher that the zero percent you get on Premium Bonds.

My mother has had a small amount of premium bonds for 40 years. In that time she has never won a single prize

According to their site if you won the average number of times it would equate to 2.15% (tax free). There are cash ISAs and online savings accounts that pay more than that.

premium bond used to be a good investment but then the level of the prize got totally slashed so now they are basically a bunch of poop.

But it's still better than the lottery!

And it has the bouble bonus of no really cheesy telly program

Yeah - remind me why I occasionally buy a ticket? And why I even bother looking at the results? And why I am surprised when I don't even match one number

My boss's cousin won a hundred grand a couple of weeks back - their syndicate of ten people got the jackpot ticket, which was one of three in a £9m draw. (edit: that doesn't work out - fsck knows, perhaps the jackpot was £3m?)

Oh, the bloke who fitted our stair carpet won £32k on WWTBAM and my mum's friend's sister-in-law is Judith Keppel (who won a million and look like a horse)

Gareth

It sucked me in - at the end of the first year I was nearly £100 up. I'm probably £30 down now. My brother's mother-in-law won £80k once, but that's as close as I have come to the big win.

Actually, I won a box of chocolates in a raffle once - but someone gave me their ticket as they were going home.

<sigh>

The obnly way I'll gamble is if I feel like I have some modicum of control. In other words, no craps, roulette, lottery, or slots. I have been known to play poker and blackjack, however. I'm pretty good at poker, but I suck royally at blackjack. I get too involved with odds that never seem to pan out right.

I'm sure someone can explain this better than I can, but the only way to have the odds in your favor with blackjack is to count cards, and count them well. This of course gets more and more dificult as they add decks. Then, once you get the technique down, the casinos will start throwing you out.

Matthew

Counding is easy. You can count up to 31 aces on one hand. And it's VERY difficult for them to notice it. That's 8 decks. Most casinos use a max 6 deck shoe. I just get too emotional in blackjack.

Counting is easy. You can count up to 31 aces on one hand.

Card counting is not about just counting the aces. It's about keeping track of the ratio of high-value cards to low value cards in addition to keeping a side count of aces. All while you're trying to remember the basic play strategy for the particular ruleset you're playing. Extreme detail can be found at the Wizard of Odds, one of the best sites on gambling information I know of.

Oh, and to touch on something that was said in the other post... Counting only gets you a house advantage of a tiny percentage, so you can only profit from blackjack in the very long run. To make cardcounting worth your while (i.e., for something more than entertainment value), you need to be a ruthlessly good card counter, you need to play very high stakes games, and you need to have a huge bankroll.

And as was already said, if the camera guy catches you doing anything that looks like counting (i.e., using your fingers to keep track of aces), they can ask you to leave.

(I'm told that In every place but Atlantic City, all businesses have the legal right to refuse service to anyone for any reason. In Atlantic City, there is a law that says games of skill are illegal, and since kicking you out for cardcounting would be tantamount to admitting that blackjack is a game of skill, the AC casinos don't kick you out for cardcounting. I dunno how accurate this information is, but it was in a FAQ that I read a few years ago.)

you need to be a ruthlessly good card counter, you need to play very high stakes games, and you need to have a huge bankroll.

And I have none of the three, which is why I always seem to lose. Always.

I once saw a pit boss shut down a low-stakes table because the deck suddenly got extra-favorable. Someone in the group said "wow, look at all the little cards that just came out". And it was true, nothing over a 5 had been dealt to the entire table, and it was a full table in single-deck play, the first deal right after a shuffle. In that situation, I would have put down a huge bet, bigger than I ever would have in any other situation. Unfortunately, I was only watching over the shoulder of another player, and even if I had been playing, I wouldn't have gotten the chance. The pit boss showed up seconds later and said "all right folks, we're closing down this table...".

I wanted to smack the guy for opening his mouth.

Wow, I'd never have luck like that, then again, he didn't either.