In the context of traditional Judeo-Christian ethics, why is gambling considered a vice? Is it because of associated activities like organized crime and prostitution, or is gambling, per se, considered immoral?
Mostly it is to do with making a profit without having laboured to earn it, and putting your hope for the future into a random event.
Si
Also, addicted gamblers will use all money available, and steal more, to gamble.
That is more a practical objection, not a moral one.
I don’t (generally) even buy raffle tickets, unless it is for a cause I would give money to anyway, and then I would probably redonate any prize I won. Doesn’t happen often.
Si
One of my pastors gave a sermon once on the evils of gambling. He did mention a few verses that he thought came into play with the actual gambling part; the main thing, though, was its frequent result – broken families, lost homes, etc.
As an aside, he also mentioned that when someone gambled away the rent money or some such and ended up in a big domestic stew, the first person the family called was usually . . . the pastor. That meant he was often one of the ones trying to keep things from completely falling apart. I can see where that could get really old.
RR
So they are just like finance wizards?
My first thought was that if we’re really talking about traditional Judeo-Christian ethics, any spare money that doesn’t go to the church is wasted. In the eyes of the church, anyway.
Ding ding ding! Give the man a cigar, we have a winner.
In my view (a view not inconsistent with the Catholic Church, I might add) gambling in moeration is no more sinful than drinking in moderation. Gambling to excess, with deleterious effects on the family, is obviously sinful.
In my parents’ Protestant denominations, gambling was considered eeeevil. My dad would walk out of a place that sold raffle tix or ran a “50-50.” The reason was both moral (possibility of getting something you didn’t earn) and practical (it’s a waste of money since you probably would gain nothing). Also it was preying on people who were too foolish to realize it was wasteful. So whether you won or lost, it was sinful.
I wouldn’t mind getting something for nothing, but I agree that most gambling is foolish, and I can see the immorality of running a lottery, getting money from people who are naive enough to believe they could come out ahead when the odds against are astronomical. My dad used to say state lotteries were “a tax on idiots.”
Bah. Maybe some people happen to prefer the probability distribution “Probably lose a small amount of money over the course of my life, maybe make a ton” to the alternative. What would be so stupid about that? Just because the probabilistic arithmetic mean income shift is negative, doesn’t mean one can’t intelligently prefer the probability distribution all the same.
Is insurance a tax on idiots?
With a lottery, the overwhelming odds are that you will lose everything you put into it. Insurance is entirely different. Take life insurance as the prime example. It is 100% certain that you will die. When that happens, your heirs will receive the insurance. If you have children who are entirely dependent on you, you are protecting their interests.
More subtly, either you will or you will not have an auto accident. Buying the insurance to protect your assets neither increases or decreases the chances. If you buy insurance and never need it you have spent a known amount in return for reducing your chances of financial catastrophe. Buying a lottery ticket almost entirely guarantees that you are out the money you spent.
The problem with the first objection is that people get things they didn’t “earn” all the time in life. If I as a businessman (say) happen to be on the same flight with someone trying to patent and market their nifty gizmo, and they need some capital to get their idea off the ground, and I provide it and we both become richer, we made money off of what was essentially a chance encounter. Granted I the tycoon shouldn’t 100% depend on such things, but many such types have made a living benefiting from situations like that.
How about a gambling game where skill does come into play, like blackjack (up to and including card counting)? If Harry the Card-Counter makes a killing doing that, he certainly earned it by doing his homework on how the game works.
Even if skill and astuteness isn’t involved at all, I could still be said to have earned the jackpot by being in the right place at the right time.
What you say is true. The following is equally true:
If you buy a lottery ticket and don’t win, you have spent a known amount in return for increasing your chances of financial windfall. Buying rare accident insurance almost entirely guarantees that you are out the money you spent.
I’m not saying you should or shouldn’t buy insurance or play the lottery, or that your choices on one constrain your intelligent choices on the other. I’m saying it’s wide open and up to you to decide what probability distributions you prefer; there is a wide range of preferences that are not automatically dismissably stupid.
Well, I started out just explaining what my parents’ code of morality was. Frankly, if you want to play the lottery, be my guest, especially if you enjoy scratching off the little shiny spots, or the anticipation of the balls dropping in the chute or whatever. You’re paying a tiny bit of what otherwise I’d have to pay in taxes. Far be it from me to say you’re immoral. Unless you do it to excess and deprive your starving children, you’re not hurting anyone. Personally, I think it’s a poor investment, and I don’t enjoy it. But then, I probably spend money on stuff that you think is ridiculous.
The Jewish view considers different kinds of gambling:
Professional gambling is not immoral per se, but it is very discouraged and looked-down-on, because the gambler is contributing nothing to society. This does not apply to the occasional or recreational gambler.
Certain kinds of gambling – especially informal betting – is considered akin to extortion. This is because the bettors have unrealistic opinions of their chance of winning. Verbally, they consent to give money to the other guy upon losing, but in their heart, they don’t really expect to lose, so when the other guy demands his winnings, it is almost like stealing. The “almost” is quite important here, as it explains why these activities are considered immoral, but not illegal.
What comes out from this is that if a person gambles only on an occasional basis, and parts with his money prior to determination of the winner, then Judaism does not object. (Raffles and lotteries are common examples.) One could be using his time more productively, but recreation is a legitimate use of time and money, within reason.
I am not currently a religious person, but the Jewish view seems quite logical to me, as do many Jewish rules.
On the insurance vs. gambling issue, one crucial difference is that if you do not buy insurance for possible (or definite, in the case of death) risks, the catastrophe may happen anyway. In many cases, if it does, you are totally and completely screwed. Case in point: A house on our block caught fire while the owner was away. It burned utterly and completely to the ground. (Fortunately our fire company kept the blaze from spreading to nearby homes, but one firefighter suffered a broken leg.) The owner had zero insurance because his mortgage was paid off and he wasn’t required to. Another case: My late father-in-law had no life insurance. When he died at the age of 52 he left his widow nothing but debt. She had, in addition to my husband, another son who was disabled and she was never able to get appropriate care for him. He eventually died in an institution. If her husband had a decent life insurance policy things would have been a whole lot better for all concerned.
What if he donates a goodly % of his winnings to charity?
Someone please tell me—what is the difference between buying a stock, and BETTING it will increase, and buying a lotto ticket?
To me–it is only the odds–nothing more, nothing less.
I think the one poster who stated it was about a work ethic was correct.
Protestant work ethic goes way back, even before the masses had any money.
If you sat and did nothing it was sinful. And that was because life was HARD, you needed to work pretty much all the time just to get thorugh life. Also there wasn’t much to do. No TV, radio, books, (even for the few who could read). People baked their own food, or hunted it or gathered it. They knitted, wove, made quilts from scraps.
If you wanted to get by in life you had to WORK for it. Work showed success and thus God’s favour.
Gambling is something for nothing.