New poll reveals lucky locations and tragic towns

Friday the 13th is upon us for the second time already in 2009, and, for those living in certain cities, the bad news just keeps coming. A UK-wide analysis by Virgin Games, based on the likelihood of placing a successful bet, has revealed the UK's most unlucky towns - places to avoid walking under a ladder and take extra care with that mirror.

The saying 'the luck of the Irish' appears misleading at best - Belfast has been revealed the unluckiest town in the UK. In Belfast, a bet of £1 can expect to see an average loss of 60p - compared to a profit of 83p if the same wager was made over the Irish Sea in St. Albans.

At the other end of the scale, Lady Luck has definitely smiled on St.Albans. Not only has the suburban district been crowned one of the best places to live in the UK - it was recently selected as the ' Mayfair' spot on the British Cities version of Monopoly - its residents can also consider themselves the luckiest, over four times more likely to win than residents living in Belfast.

So is there really such a thing as good or bad luck? Of a kind, says behavioural psychologist Donna Dawson: "It's interesting to consider the behaviour that can lead to bad or good luck and how that could manifest regionally across the UK. Luck is based on a number of factors; skill, chance but of course also mindset. A negative outlook versus a positive one can have a really big effect on luck; if enough people in one area have one or the other outlook towards life, this could very well create a snowball effect geographically."

Top 5 unluckiest towns in the UK:
1. Belfast
2. Perth
3. Newport
4. Salisbury
5. Motherwell

Top 5 luckiest towns in the UK
1. St. Albans
2. Sutton
3. Brighton
4. Luton
5. City of Manchester

For more information visit Virgingames.com.