Far better to take a gamble on life and get out into the big wide world than sitting in isolation playing bingo online - Sarah Todd

The joy would come from everything that went with it, the whole package, of watching it on the gallops and the anticipation of it running in a race.

Yes, owning a racehorse would be a fun way to spend a lottery windfall. In fact, notching up a few four-legged friends would be perfect; spreading the good fortune around a couple of Yorkshire trainers.

Days through the summer on the flat and then how smashing to get the big coat and boots out and keep going with a few to run over the sticks in the winter months.

Definitely no more than six; maybe four in training and a couple of mares in foal to good stallions to keep the dream alive for the future…

There, that’s this correspondent’s lottery win dream sorted. As an aside we don’t even buy a ticket so it’s unlikely to happen any time soon.

When the lottery first started we used to, but all the different draws rather than the one big Saturday night event seemed to dilute our interest.

Anyway, new figures have revealed that a National Lottery millionaire was made every day on average in 2023 - a year in which more than £4.5bn was paid out in total to lucky winners.

So, how have those whose numbers have actually come up spent the money?

What a joy to hear about David Lawrence, from Surrey, who is building a golf course in his back garden to help those with mental health and other special needs.

Even before the lottery win he was no stranger to helping others, having spent 30 years fundraising for good causes.

Following a similar path are Karleen Reece and her husband Mark, who are going to use their windfall to treat their own three children and then help others by becoming foster carers.

70-year-old grandmother Doris Stanbridge has pocketed £10,000 a month, every month, for 30 years. This seems a much better idea than the mind-blowing one off amounts that could end up sending some winners off the rails.

There is something worrying about news of the biggest jackpot won in 2023 - £111.7m. That just doesn’t seem right; too life-changing (and not necessarily in a good way) for any one individual to shoulder.

Far better to have more payouts like Doris’s - smaller in amount and spread out over a longer period. Ideal for when the racehorse trainers’ bills come in.

Back in the day, tuning into the old gogglebox over the festive period brought on a barrage of adverts for the January sales and deals on foreign holidays for the forthcoming year.

Now, apart from mattresses and funeral plans, the emphasis has shifted onto gambling. Bingo used to be a gentle bit of brain exercise played in care homes or by ladies of a certain age on the seafront.

Now, it seems, we are all missing out on a new kind of cyber social life and the chance to win money if we are not matching up numbers on our mobile phones.

Apparently, there are around 100 million online bingo players globally, with 3.5 million of them in the UK - making it one of the most popular online activities in this country.

Women aged 35 to 54 make up 85 per cent of all online players which, in this correspondent’s mind, seems somehow rather sad.

At this age, these ‘girls’ should still be able to get out and about and meet up with real-life human beings, not sat alone tapping onto a screen.

It seems a stark contrast to the social side of a night at the bingo that tightly permed characters like Vera Duckworth used to enjoy in the good old days of Coronation Street.

Is there a moral to this week’s column?

Not really. Apart from maybe the conclusion that it’s good to have a dream, but no good if that involves sitting in isolation.

Far better to take a gamble on life and get out into the big wide world to throw the dice. Nobody ever ended up with a full house sitting by themselves.