• Is Gambling Morally Right Vs
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• Is Gambling Morally Right Act

Organized religions have clear set lines of what is morally right or wrong, so it is quite easy for them to answer that gambling is unethical. Recent times have seen most states legalizing gambling. This might be a welcome development for some interest groups while some might not be happy. If something is morally wrong it cannot possibly be politically right. Gambling is wrong because it is addictive. Gambling is wrong because it is not consistent with the scriptural work ethic. Gambling is wrong because it ignores valid stewardship. Of course, conservative Christians don’t support gambling because they see gambling as immoral, so they want it illegal. These Christians also see drunkenness as immoral and so, if they could, the reasoning goes, they’d be right back at Prohibition. But gambling isn’t merely a “values” issue. While some people still might think that gambling is morally wrong and the people who do it are engaging in a troubling activity, in many ways gambling has lost its deviant status. When this happens we would say a behavior has been re-labeled; in other words, we give the same behavior a different meaning, even if the behavior itself hasn’t. Gambling for entertainment, for the amount you’d spend on entertainment, and on occasion, is not immoral. Gambling as a habit, regardless the amount you’d spend on it, is destructive, therefore, immoral. The true problem is not the money you may lose. Some gamblers win, after all.

I thought it would be fun to write a series of blog posts defining the basic terms involved in gambling. After all, gambling is what this site is all about, so why not get down to the most fundamental basics.

This post defines what gambling is and explains how gambling works. It includes a close look at several of the most popular activities people gamble on—card games, dice games, lotteries, and sports.

I’ve also included some observations about how religion and philosophers look at gambling, how the governments regulate it (via gambling laws), and why and how addictive the act of betting can become.

The post begins with some definitions—not only of the word “gambling,” but also of several related words and expressions which can add nuance to your understanding of this activity that’s fundamental to our nature as human beings.

I’ll start by offering a definition of the word “gamble.” This word just means to risk money in the hopes of winning money on an event where the outcome isn’t certain.

And when I say “money,” it doesn’t necessarily have to be cash or coins specifically. It could mean anything of value. In fact, if you’re gambling in a casino, you’re rarely gambling cash. You almost always convert your cash to chips before placing any bets—those chips are “something of value.”

And I’ve never met a gambler who’s always right yet.)

“Action” refers to the amount of money that you’re gambling. It also refers to the state of having something at risk. In other words, if you bet $50 per hand on 100 hands of blackjack, you’ve put $5000 into action, regardless of how much you’ve won or lost. If you’re watching a football game and have a bet riding on who’s going to win, you’re “in action.”

A “bet” refers to an amount that you’re risking on some uncertain outcome. A synonym for bet is “wager.” You can use either term as a verb or as a noun, by the way.

As a noun, you’re talking about a “bet” or “wager” as an amount of money riding on something.

As a verb, either term means to put money into action on something.

Opinions on whether gambling is “moral” vary from religion to religion and from philosophy to philosophy. I think what you do with your money is up to you, so you get to decide for yourself whether gambling is moral or whether gambling is a sin.

Others have different opinions.

The Bible, for example, doesn’t address gambling specifically, but it does address peripheral subjects. You could suppose from the stance on those issues that gambling is a sin.

For example, greed is singled out in The Bible as sinful. When you’re gambling, you’re engaged in greed in an active way. You’re hoping to win something that belongs to someone else, after all, which is the very definition of coveting something.

Most philosophers don’t consider The Bible the final word on morality.

Most philosophers would contend that as long as you’re not hurting someone, you’re not doing anything immoral. Cheating at gambling would be immoral, for sure, but just gambling by itself isn’t immoral.

I’ve seen the argument that gambling is immoral because the money you lose gambling could be put to better use. You could feed and house the homeless with it, for example.

I don’t think that argument holds water. If you use that same logic, going to a movie or paying for Netflix is also immoral, because that money would better be spent on charity. I don’t think most people have that limited a view on what a moral use of their money is.

Is gambling a sin?

Maybe, but I think you’re jumping through some hoops to get to that conclusion.

Is gambling immoral?

I don’t think so, unless you’re cheating. Gambling is just another form of entertainment, and entertainment—in and of itself—isn’t immoral.

One of the oldest and most popular ways to gamble is to play card games. Blackjack and poker are probably the first games to come to mind, but the number of gambling games you can play with a deck of cards is practically infinite.

Most gambling card games are played with a standard deck of cards. That’s a deck with 52 cards, which are divided into 13 ranks and 4 different suits. These are the cards you play blackjack and poker with, and almost every American is familiar with such a deck.

In fact, decks of cards like these are popular throughout Western culture.

Is Gambling Morally Right Vs

Most people don’t think of those kinds of games when they think of gambling with cards, but you could certainly place bets on them. Magic the Gathering is often played in tournament format, and there are often cash prizes for such events.

This makes the game more similar to poker than you might think.

In fact, many poker players started playing cards with Magic and later made the switch to poker.

Dice games might be as old as card games, or they might be even older. Primitive forms of dice included rolling the knuckles of sheep and betting on which side came up. That’s why people still talk about playing craps as “rolling the bones.”

Craps is the most popular form of gambling on dice out there, but dice games are like card games. They’re not just limited to one form. Sic bo is another example of a dice game you can gamble on, but it has more of an Asian theme.

The betting in sic bo resembles the betting in roulette more than it does craps, too.

You could gamble on games like Yahtzee if you wanted to. I used to hang out at a bar in Dallas where we played a dice game called Blitz. We always had money riding on that game.

I did some research on that game recently, and it seems as if it’s more commonly called “Shut the Box.” The game uses a box with the numbers 1 through 9 on a hinge where you can flip them up and down as they’ve been achieved.

Board games like backgammon use dice, too, and many people like to gamble on backgammon, too.

Have you ever heard the expression “casting lots?”

It’s an old form of fortune-telling that relies on randomly selecting numbers. It’s also the expression that gave us the word “lottery.”
Most people in the United States think of lotteries as a government-run form of gambling, which is what it consists of today.

But it wasn’t always so.

If you’ve heard the expression “running numbers” in an old gangster or crime movie, then you’ve heard about the way lotteries used to be conducted in the United States—privately.

When local gangsters used to run numbers, they would sell you a pick for $1 or $2. You’d choose a 3-digit number, and the next morning, you might use the last 3 digits of the S&P 500 to see if you’d won. The payoffs would be made by numbers-runners.

Now, the lottery is legal and conducted by the states in most of the USA. This has eliminated the need for people to run a private lottery.
Keno is a form of the lottery, too, but it’s run by a casino instead of by an individual or the state.

Lotteries often offer some of the worst odds in gambling, but they also offers some of the largest prize amounts. People seem to love the lottery.

Theoretically, you could consider a roulette wheel a gambling machine, as it IS a simple machine.

But that’s not what people are talking about when they talk about gambling machines.

Now, people are talking about slot machines and video poker games when they talk about gambling machines.

Slot machines have been around for about 100 years. These are the games with the spinning reels and a payline on the front of the machine. If you get matching symbols along the payline, you win a prize amount. These used to be entirely mechanical, and they housed huge metal reels that were operated by springs and gears.

In recent decades, these mechanical parts have been replaced with computer programs and electronics. Most modern slot machines are more like video games than anything else.

The computer program that drives the results for these newer slot machine games is called a “random number generator,” or “RNG.”
That’s just a computer program that thinks of numbers—thousands of them per second.

When you hit the “spin” button on a modern slot machine game, the computer stops on whatever number it was just thinking of. That number corresponds to a combination of symbols on the game.

Video poker machines can almost be considered a specialized kind of slot machine where the probabilities are determined by the math behind a deck of 52 cards. The combinations are based on poker hands.

The odds on video poker machines are light years better than the odds on slot machines.

Betting on sporting events is one of the most popular kinds of gambling throughout the world. In the United States, betting on sports has been illegal almost everywhere for decades, although that’s in the process of changing.

Many people just place a straight-up wager with one of their buddies on the outcome of a football or baseball game.

But most serious sports bettors use a bookmaker—an individual or company which specializes in taking people’s action on sporting events. In the United States, these companies work just outside the law and are called “bookies.”

In Las Vegas, you can gamble on sports with the sportsbooks in the casino. In other countries, especially in Europe, bookmaking is a legitimate regulated business. Anyone can have an account with such a company provided they have the money to risk and are legally old enough to risk it.

Some bookmakers charge more or less vig, though—you might have a $120 to $100 ratio at one book, and a $105 to $100 ratio at another book.

That amount can change based on the sporting event, too, or the book might be running a special promotion where they offer a discounted vig. You’re not required to wager that amount, either—it’s the ratio that matters. You could bet $55 to win $50, or $22 to win $20, etc.

Some people equate gambling with investing and/or trading in the stock market or in real estate. The activities have similarities, especially when you consider your approach.

Someone like Warren Buffett, who invests in the stock market in a businesslike fashion and who wants to make sure that his investments have a good probability of showing a profit, are more like card counters in blackjack than any other kind of gambler.

Your buddy Joe who claims to average $1400 a week in earnings from trading stocks day in and out, are really just gamblers and speculators. They’re not really investors.

Both activities have an element of chance, although investing in the stock market has less chance involved than some people think.
Both activities involve risking something of value in the hopes of gaining something of value.

For one thing, investment markets, like the stock market and the real estate market, are regulated by a completely different set of entities than gambling businesses are.

And most states have laws regulating gambling closely, even making it completely illegal in many areas.

But no state I know of has a law against day trading or investing in the stock market.

The main difference seems to be that investing has to do with legitimate business activities, while gambling is more concerned with games of chance.

Gambling laws vary based on jurisdiction. In the United States, for example, few federal laws address gambling in any way. The Wire Act does make it illegal to bet on sports over the phone or the internet, but it doesn’t really address casino games or poker games.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) doesn’t actually outlaw gambling; it just makes it a federal crime to facilitate funds transfers for the purposes of illegal gambling.

These laws often also distinguish between types of gambling. Some states might be really strict about slot machine ownership, for example, but hosting a home poker game might not be a big deal in that same state.

Some states have specific laws outlawing internet gambling and making it a felony (like Washington).

And that’s just a perspective on “is gambling legal” from an American perspective. Other countries have entirely different perspectives and legal patchworks related to gambling.

For example, in the United States, sports betting is illegal almost everywhere. That’s changing, but that’s the landscape here now.
In Europe, on the other hand, sports betting is legal and regulated almost everywhere. There’s a legal sportsbook on practically every street corner.

Is gambling legal?

It depends on where you live.

It also depends on what kind of gambling you’re talking about.

You could consider problem gambling or gambling addiction to be characterized by one thing:

Gambling excessively.

What does “excessive” mean?

It just means that you’re doing too much of something. An alcoholic might be someone who drinks excessively. A drug addict does an excessive amount of drugs. A compulsive overeater eats too much.

No matter what the activity is, if you do too much of it, you’ll wind up suffering as a result.

How do you know if you’re a problem gambler?

You have lots of options to get help and support if you have a gambling problem. A lot of people think their only option is a 12-step program, but you can get help from individual counselors and other mental health professionals.

Some people think that because it doesn’t involve ingesting chemicals, gambling can’t be an addiction.

If you feel that way, spend some time reading about how the brain works, especially how the brain works when it comes to gambling. You’ll probably be surprised at the scientific research into how the chemicals in your brain respond to gambling.

Life is too short to ruin it with a gambling problem. If you think gambling is a problem, try to get some help as soon as you can.

What is gambling?

It’s a form of entertainment where you risk money on something with an uncertain outcome in the hopes of winning money. You don’t necessarily have to risk money, either—it can be anything of value.

One of my mentors is a poker player who insists that gambling is intrinsic to our nature as human. Everything we do involves risk and reward, and everything we do involves uncertain outcomes, too.

What are your experiences with gambling so far in your life?

Posted on 07/23/2005 2:37:08 PM PDT by Gill

The recent question of legalized gambling in Ohio,brought to memory an editorial I wrote in 1957. I hope you find it interesting.....

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Gambling: Moral or Immoral?

By

Thomas G. Herrick

Originally written May 31, 1957

Revisited March 26, 2005

Gambling: Moral or Immoral?

Gamblers play just as lovers make love and alcoholics drink – blindly and of necessity, under domination of an irresistible force. There are beings vowed to play, as there are being vowed to love. I wonder who invented this story of the two sailors who were so possessed by the lust of gambling. They were shipwrecked and only escaped a watery grave, after experiencing the most appalling vicissitudes, by climbing on the back of a whale. The instant they were installed there, they lugged out of their pockets dice and dice boxes and settled themselves down to play. The story is truer than truth. Every gambler is like those sailors. And in every deed there is something in play that does terribly stir the fibers of daring hearts. Is it an insignificant delight to tempt fortune? Is it a pleasure devoid of intoxications to taste in one second, months, years, a whole lifetime of fear and hopes?

On the question of gambling, opinions are divided. Some class it among the vices, others among the amusements. For some it is a thing which conscience can never sanction; for others, it is just a matter of taste – legitimate enough if you happen to like that kind of thing.

R. C. Mortimer, the author of Personal Ethics, states, “Gambling to such an extent is to make it one’s sole and staple diet is agreed by all to be an evil, and the existence of this admittedly ‘evil’ gambling has raised the question whether the practice in itself is inherently and necessarily ‘evil,’ or whether the ‘evil’ we deplore is simply regrettable use of an otherwise harmless amusement.”

Is Gambling Morally Right Thing

He further states, “There are two main grounds on which it is held that any gamble must be immoral. First, it is immoral to make the ownership of property dependent on chance; and second, it is immoral to get something for which one gives nothing in return.”

Is Gambling Morally Right Quote

Mr. Mortimer here makes a blaring contradiction to his statement, that gambling is immoral because the gambler gets something for nothing. “It is argued that the gambler gets something for nothing and that must be wrong. Without going into the question of whether the principle here is right and if it is right, it would seem at first sight to throw doubt on the legitimacy of receiving a gift. It is enough to say that in fact the gambler does not get something for nothing. In the gambling contract certain rights are mutually conferred. In the event of one set of circumstances, A gives B the right to claim from him a sum of money. In the event of certain other circumstances, B gives A a similar tight. It cannot be maintained that this conferring of a right is nothing; it is a definite contribution, in virtue of which the gambler earns – becomes entitled to – his winnings” (R. C. Mortimer, Gambling, Ch. 6, p. 138, Personal Ethics).

Aristotle was also against gambling. (Giralamo Cardano, in his book Cardano, tells why gambling was condemned by Aristotle.) “But when we come to speak of the play itself and of actual gambling, I do not hold anyone blameless in this matter except those who play for money because of great grief of mind; and gambling, is disgraceful because a man makes gain from his friend against that friend’s will. For the case stands thus, gain from those who are both willing and aware is best; next best is gain from those who are aware and unwilling. To the first class belongs lawyers and doctors, and to the second merchants. The third kind is gain from those who, being aware but unwilling, are one’s friends, as in gambling. The fourth kind is gain from those who are unwilling and unaware as in gain by trickery. The firth kind is gain from those who are unwilling and aware and not one’s friends, as in robbery.”

Aristotle gives another reason elsewhere when he says, “Gamblers, thieves, and robbers ply a sordid trade for they traffic in base gain, in fact they do everything for the sake of gain and thereby incur reproach. But thieves at least undergo great risks for their spoils, while gamblers gain from their friends to whom they ought rather to give. So both classes of men whose aim is to make gain where they ought not, traffic in base gain, and all such acquisitive acts are sordid. Moreover, a confirmed gambler is a perjurer and a blasphemer, and is at the same time prodigal and greedy; and if not so already by nature, he soon becomes irascible; he cherishes vain hopes in his idleness and he corrupts the youth.” It sounds as if some of Aristotle’s friends took the great scholar to the cleaners. “There have been philosophers who have despised riches when they could not get at them; and some, who have advised the world to despise them, while they have been hoarding them. (Herbert Marx, Jr., Gambling in America).

Is Gambling Morally Right Act

One of the arguments against gambling is that it often leads to financial ruin. This may be very true in a few isolated cases, but the figures do not bear the argument out. The present personal expenditure on gambling is something near $196M annually; it is on this basis a comparatively unimportant item. It represents an average annual expenditure of about $5.60 per head, by the adult population. It is, however, pointed out that not all families take part in gambling, as such. Taking 15 million as the number of people who gamble regularly, then the average expenditure is still only something around $20 per person. “The present personal expenditure of gambling represents not more than one percent of total personal expenditures, and gambling at present, absorbs about .5 percent of the national resources. Although significant, this is by no means important. (Geoffrey Crowther, The Economists). The cost of gambling as an amusement is infinitively small compared to the cost of almost any other amusement. The price for gambling is $196M per year; whereas, the cost of tobacco is $3,686 billion and that expended for liquor alone is $4,739 billion – RETAIL. If it is just a question of wasting one’s money that gambling is considered to be immoral, then should not tobacco and liquor be immoral also? Yet, the same people who condemn gambling are the very ones who patronize the local “pubs” and smoke shops (above figures taken from World Almanac, 1955).

James Hayden Tufts in his book America’s Social Morality, agrees to a certain extent with Mr. Mortimer and Aristotle. He agrees to only the overindulgence theory of gambling and not to any other aspect. “Gambling, betting, taking a chance on the outcome of a race, the turn of a card, a rise in stocks, or a prize in a lottery are in several respects the least degrading of the vices. The gambler is indeed liable to be caught in a loss which may tempt him to take money from his employer’s cash drawer, or stake the savings which are sorely needed by his family.” At this point everyone concerned with the subject is in agreement. But Mr. Tufts goes on to state that he is very much opposed to the previous theory of Mortimer, that “If other than pecuniary aspects are considered, gambling has something to say for itself. It is akin to intellectual activity rather than to positive and sensuous pleasure. It does not cause a man to make a public show of himself in a disgusting condition as drinking often does, nor driving of motor cars, and similar effects of intemperance. It does not abuse and sensualize what ought to be a peculiarly intimate and affectionate relationship to another human being as does prostitution. And if convivial banquet and bouquet of choice wines have been companions of song and have called out the praises of poets, betting has had its associations with races and athletic contests, which have likewise had their minstrelsy. Horse racing has been called the “sport of kings,” and horse racing without gambling has been declared “a dry and tedious sport.” The undergraduate who “backs’ his college team, and the political sport who “backs” his party’s candidate in the odds of election wagers feels himself moved, not so much by sordid motives as by loyalty and patriotism.”

I do not go so far as to entirely agree with Mr. Tufts, for I feel that men gamble not only through loyalty and patriotism, but very definitely for pecuiniary benefits. I believe that it is in man’s very instinct to gamble. “The great mass of human beings feel the charm of gambling, and the more commonplace the individual, the more strongly is he attracted by the fascination of chance. Our acts are guided by the desire of obtaining the maximum of pleasure with a minimum of pain and effort, and you cannot obtain this better than by gambling. Life is short; the future is uncertain. If fortune is to be ours, should we not prepare the way so that it may come swiftly? And what better way that that of gambling? If we are towin, let it be soon and once and for all! Our life is nothing more than a game of chance. We are gamblers all, even those of us who have never touched a card. Professions, business, and love itself are pure gambles, pure luck, a matter of chance, cleverness, and intelligence may cause our life games to turn out favorably, but chance still retains its hold on us, and the luck of an individual is what is more important – a man never has become rich or celebrated merely on his own merits” (Vicente, Blasco Ibanez, The Enemies of Women)

Some scholars say that not only is gambling immoral, but that it is also a waste of time, by people who are only stupid or ignorant. Here again, I cannot agree. For the people who say that only the stupid can play cards err, they do not know what decision, what quickness of apprehension, what judgment, what knowledge of character are required to play a different hand perfectly.

“The good card player trusts his intuition as implicitly as Monsieur Bergson, but he calls it a hunch the brilliant card player has agift as specific as the poet’s; he too is born, not made. The student of human nature can find endless matter for observation in the behavior of his fellow card players. Meanness and generosity, prudence and audacity, courage and timidity, weakness and strength – all these men show at the game table according to their natures. The game table is a very good school for the study of mankind” (Somerset Maugham, Introduction to Traveller’s Library).

It was, I think, Alexander the Great, who said that so long as his soldiers were gamblers, he felt secure against mutiny. If then a man likes to find his amusement in gambling, he is as much entitled to spend his money on it as he is on movies or football game. The fact that he may spend too much money is now more a condemnation of the one than it is of the other.

I have pointed out a few examples of thinking from both main schools of thought – the moral and the immoral. New, let us look at the practical justification of gambling.

“In general, a risk is judged to be necessary or justifiable, (1) when every effort has been made by the reason to minimize the extent of the unknown. When the advantage hoped for is commensurate with the loss ricked (i.e., it would be unjustifiable to risk one’s life to save a sparrow, but justifiable to risk it to save a child), and (3) when the probability of a favorable outcome is greater than the probability of an unfavorable one. If this last condition is not fulfilled, we are apt to call it not a risk but a danger or at any rate a grave risk. A grave risk is never justifiable except where the second condition is amply fulfilled, i.e., where what we stand to gain is of pressing and supreme importance (R. C. Mortimer, Personal Ethics).

Let me summarize to this point, I have presented views, pro and con, on the question of gambling, and have also stated the justification of it. Now, let us assume that gambling is a moral necessity and has a definite place on the human scene.

Since gambling is increasingly becoming the most popular national amusement, there is coming into light the idea of chance as something that can be treated numerically. For a long time men did not realize that they had the power to do so. At the time when the Renaissance was drawing to a close, a new curiosity about nature was sweeping the world. It extended even to the gamblers. A group of them, unable to answer their own questions about the fall of the dice and other gaming problems, went to some of the leading scientists. One was Galileo who found these gaming problems worth careful study. Down through the years the problems of gambling have fascinated every major scientist and mathematician. The sum total of their efforts might well be entitled the Theories of Probabilities. The Theories of Probabilities are now involved in every phase of existence. They include everything from a business proposition to a sweepstakes ticket.

This is as much as I want to say about the Theories of Probabilities, for it is far too deep and intense to delve any farther into it. One would have to be a mathematician to explain let alone comprehend the various ramifications of this vast subject.

In the final analysis, it would seem that gambling, just as in anything, if taken in the right quantity, in the right place, and at the right time should be considered completely moral. Gambling is a universal phenomenon. It occurs among people of all ages and cultures. Can we suppress the activities of so large a mass? I say not. As long as there are two or more people in a given place, there will be gambling, moral or immoral.

Well let me be the first :-)
I don't know if it's moral or immoral, but I'm pretty sure it's stupid.

Exactly...entertainment cash...

As long as there is money to be made there will be Bingo at the Church.

Ah heck! I thought I'd be first! You are too quick.

Give ya' 4-1 that the moral police show up soon....

Never gamble in a game that two can play!

I bet it is immoral

I don't think it's immoral, but it's stupid, and I should know. However, if stupid people want to gamble, it's fine with me.

Thank you for reminding me to check Wednesday's winning Lotto numbers, and to pick up a ticket for tonight's drawing ;-)
4 bucks a week when I actually remember, versus spending the mortgage payment or the grocery money, is different. I like Vegas for the people watching, but nickel slots were few and far between, back when I was there last.
Btw, your article is excellent, and thanks for posting it.

Gambling = A tax on stupidity

Gambling: Moral or Immoral?

I'll bet this is a trick question...

'I have always considered it self-destructive because games are rigged for you to lose.' - Now_is_The_Time
Gambling will not exist in institutional settings (Las Vegas or church basements) unless the house wins over time. Such 'unfairness' is not itself destructive to players, unless one believes that consumers are irrational in weighing subjective value against costs - a dangerous belief, indeed.

If God wants to send me money I haven't earned, He knows where to find me. In the meantime, He has instructed me to keep gainfully employed, so I'll keep doing that, because such obedience is definitely moral.

The lottery:
A tax on people who are bad at math.

To me a casino is like a garbage can with a sign hanging on it that reads 'Throw your money in here and maybe I will double it!'

People should be free to hang signs on their garbage cans, and if other people want to throw their money it, well good for them.

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