We don’t like gambling at Moneymagpie. In fact, we hate it because it ruins lives and ends up losing punters money instead of making it. However if you really are partial to a bit of a flutter every now and then, we have found some safer and cheaper ways of indulging in your vice – and even doing a bit of good with it!

• With Lottoaid you are giving to charity while being in a prize draw.
• Premium Bonds are a safe flutter although you’d get more from a high-interest savings account.
• Investing in shares can be a gamble unless you keep your money there for at least five years.

Lottoaid

We don’t like the National Lottery but with Lottoaid you’re giving more money to charity – ActionAid in fact – with the possibility that you might win something along the line.

This isn’t something you can just have a go at every now and then, though. You have to sign up to a monthly direct debit, a minimum of £4.34 a month because one play costs £1 a week (which equates to £4.34 per month). For each play you get a unique number which is entered into the draw every week (players must be UK residents and aged 16 or over). Every week there are five winning tickets drawn at random by a computer. As there are currently only about 8,500 people playing it each week you have a much better chance of winning something this way than with the National Lottery.

More of your money is going to charity, too, than the Lottery fund gives. For each play, 25p goes into the prize fund and 75p goes to ActionAid’s work to help poor people around the world fight their way out of poverty. If you would rather all your money was given to ActionAid then consider sponsoring a child through their work. Just 50p a day can transform a child’s life and give a child in poverty the opportunity to receive the education, clean water and health care they urgently need.

Premium bonds

The good things about Premium bonds are that they are tax-free and even if you don’t win anything, you don’t lose the cash you put in. Also, there’s the chance that you could possibly win the jackpot, which is always a thrill for some. The main problem with them, though, is that the average return is less than you would get if you put the same amount in a high-interest savings account. In fact, over time if you’re not earning interest, your money gets worth less and less because of inflation.

You need to put in a minimum investment of £100, and a maximum of £30,000. Go to Nsandi.com to find out more, but if you do decide to ‘invest’, don’t waste too much money on it. Use it as a bit of fun – something to take your mind off other forms of gambling.

The stock market

Many people see the stock market as a scary, chancey place to put your money, and in the short term it certainly is. However, if you put money in and leave it for at least five years it stops being a more sophisticated form of gambling and becomes genuine investing which, over time, should make serious money for you.

In fact, if you put money regularly into a cheap, index-tracking fund that tracks the FTSE 100 or the FTSE All-share you will absorb the ups and downs of the Stock Market over time and gradually create a decent nest egg for your future.

If you want to make it even less of a gamble then wrap it in an Isa (most of the Index Trackers come pre-wrapped in one anyway – you just have to ask). That way the Government gets less of your tax money to gamble away in its own sweet way!

..and remember…

Horse sense is what stops horses betting on people (anon)

Get started

• Lottoaid gives money to charity while allowing you a flutter
• Go to National Savings and Investments if you want Premium Bond
• Found another safe way to gamble? Come up trumps on Lottoaid? Tell us about it on the Money Talk Forum!