Gambling... Right or Wrong?

Ethics, Morality, and Sin

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jgh7

Gambling... Right or Wrong?

Post #1

Post by jgh7 »

Is gambling ethically right, wrong, or neither? Does it depend on the degree to which you gamble? Does it depend on your reasons for gambling? Does it depend on the type of gambling you do? Does the bible have any quotes relating to gambling?

Paprika
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Re: Gambling... Right or Wrong?

Post #2

Post by Paprika »

jgh7 wrote: Is gambling ethically right, wrong, or neither? Does it depend on the degree to which you gamble? Does it depend on your reasons for gambling? Does it depend on the type of gambling you do? Does the bible have any quotes relating to gambling?
As in the pot thread, this is my question: Is there some reason why an explicit statement is required to condone or forbid the practice in part or in whole?
The response to the refugee crisis has been troubling, exposing... just how impoverished our moral and political discourse actually is. For the difficult tasks of patient deliberation and discriminating political wisdom, a cult of sentimental humanitarianism--Neoliberalism's good cop to its bad cop of foreign military interventionism--substitutes the self-congratulatory ease of kneejerk emotional judgments, assuming that the 'right'...is immediately apparent from some instinctive apprehension of the 'good'. -AR

jgh7

Re: Gambling... Right or Wrong?

Post #3

Post by jgh7 »

Paprika wrote:
jgh7 wrote: Is gambling ethically right, wrong, or neither? Does it depend on the degree to which you gamble? Does it depend on your reasons for gambling? Does it depend on the type of gambling you do? Does the bible have any quotes relating to gambling?
As in the pot thread, this is my question: Is there some reason why an explicit statement is required to condone or forbid the practice in part or in whole?
Because it sheds light on why its wrong or okay hopefully.

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Re: Gambling... Right or Wrong?

Post #4

Post by Hamsaka »

jgh7 wrote:
Paprika wrote:
jgh7 wrote: Is gambling ethically right, wrong, or neither? Does it depend on the degree to which you gamble? Does it depend on your reasons for gambling? Does it depend on the type of gambling you do? Does the bible have any quotes relating to gambling?
As in the pot thread, this is my question: Is there some reason why an explicit statement is required to condone or forbid the practice in part or in whole?
Because it sheds light on why its wrong or okay hopefully.
Ah but you are very capable of determining something like this yourself. It can even be empirical.

Are financial responsibilities being negatively impacted by the gambling? Are you 'going without' something important (or causing someone else to go without) by using your money to gamble? If not, and it's your money, it's yours to do what you choose.

Things like this aren't either right or wrong, because they can be both in different circumstances. There is no objective right or wrong except what we decide together (laws) or individual (personal values and ethics).

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Post #5

Post by McCulloch »

I would argue that gambling, at least large stakes lotteries, are wrong.
I think of them like taxes. They are gullibility taxes; the more gullible you are, the more you spend on lotteries. Like taxes, the revenue after any payouts goes into public spending on various charitable projects. So why is this a wrong thing? 3 reasons:
  1. Although voluntary, they are a regressive form of taxation. The rich invariably spend a lower percentage of their income on lotteries than the poor.
  2. The few large winners increase the numbers of the very rich but do not significantly reduce the numbers of the poor, thus increasing not decreasing the wealth gap.
  3. The spending on charitable projects is directed not by our elected officials according to the priorities of the people, but by boards and bureaucrats
As to what the Bible says, it says nothing. Which shows just how lacking relevance it is for the modern world.
Examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good.
First Epistle to the Church of the Thessalonians
The truth will make you free.
Gospel of John

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Re: Gambling... Right or Wrong?

Post #6

Post by Paprika »

Hamsaka wrote:

Ah but you are very capable of determining something like this yourself. It can even be empirical.
Quite. Just as I've mentioned in the other thread, moral reason is available. Add to that, of course, the principles, virtues and ends disclosed in Scripture.
McCulloch wrote:
As to what the Bible says, it says nothing. Which shows just how lacking relevance it is for the modern world.
This is either a manifestly ignorant view, or one that is so dependent on deontological rules, so that without explicit rules one is morally helpless and stuck in a morass of uncertainty.
The response to the refugee crisis has been troubling, exposing... just how impoverished our moral and political discourse actually is. For the difficult tasks of patient deliberation and discriminating political wisdom, a cult of sentimental humanitarianism--Neoliberalism's good cop to its bad cop of foreign military interventionism--substitutes the self-congratulatory ease of kneejerk emotional judgments, assuming that the 'right'...is immediately apparent from some instinctive apprehension of the 'good'. -AR

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Re: Gambling... Right or Wrong?

Post #7

Post by Bust Nak »

jgh7 wrote: Is gambling ethically right, wrong, or neither? Does it depend on the degree to which you gamble?
It neither, it's just entertainment. Granted, one form of entertainment that is often addictive. If anything is ethically wrong, it is the exploitation of those who are addicted to gambling and the actions people might to fund said addiction.
Does it depend on your reasons for gambling? Does it depend on the type of gambling you do? Does the bible have any quotes relating to gambling?
No, no and not that I am aware of.

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Re: Gambling... Right or Wrong?

Post #8

Post by Hamsaka »

Paprika wrote:
Hamsaka wrote:
Ah but you are very capable of determining something like this yourself. It can even be empirical.
Quite. Just as I've mentioned in the other thread, moral reason is available. Add to that, of course, the principles, virtues and ends disclosed in Scripture.
The Quran says 'no'
O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, [sacrificing on] stone alters [to other than Allah ], and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful.
Buddhism, too
"And what six ways of squandering wealth are to be avoided? Young man, heedlessness caused by intoxication, roaming the streets at inappropriate times, habitual partying, compulsive gambling, bad companionship, and laziness are the six ways of squandering wealth.

"These are the six dangers inherent in compulsive gambling: winning breeds resentment; the loser mourns lost property; savings are lost; one's word carries no weight in a public forum; friends and colleagues display their contempt; and one is not sought after for marriage, since a gambler cannot adequately support a family.
Here's a link to 'Gambling Across the Religions': http://www.gambleonline.co/religious-views-of-gambling/

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Re: Gambling... Right or Wrong?

Post #9

Post by Talishi »

jgh7 wrote: Is gambling ethically right, wrong, or neither? Does it depend on the degree to which you gamble? Does it depend on your reasons for gambling? Does it depend on the type of gambling you do? Does the bible have any quotes relating to gambling?
I call it the stupidity tax. See those lights on the casino? Who's paying for that juice? You are.
Thank you for playing Debating Christianity & Religion!

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Post #10

Post by zjsd26 »

It all depends on the person. I don't believe Gambling to be beneficial, I considered it to be an addiction and a demanding habit to overcome. Some may find some pleasure in it, but it's not for me.

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