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Post by Aj_June on Nov 8, 2017 10:11:06 GMT
This question came to my mind as I recently watched the twilight zone episode called The Fever
To compulsive sports bettors like me gambling is extremely exciting but at the same time exhausting and frustrating thing. My dream is to win the illusive 100000$ streak survivor contest on covers forum by making 25 correct predictions in a row. My hit rate at the moment is 56% which only 1 out of 100 might have after 100 bets. And still I have not come anywhere near 25 straight correct bets.The bets are all handicaped so actual probability of getting each of them correct is 50%. Nobody has been able to win the 100000$ award till now but one person won the $25,000 award (after getting 20 consecutive wins) and won 24 straight bets. I think Islam is strictly against Gambling. There are instances in Mahabharata where Krishna's friend are gambling but Krishna doesn't stop his friends so I guess Hinduism is not much against gambling. I believe some forms of Christianity are also against gambling. Though modern day Christians usually see no problem with gambling as long as one does not over-indulge in it. What do you guys think about gambling? Is gambling against religion in some way? Some times gambling is likened to drinking but with advent of internet I think most of the sports fan indulge in some sort of gambling. My personal opinion is that I will not advice anyone to develop habit of gambling. It is extremely frustrating and addictive. But I personally don't find there is anything immoral about it unless one has a family to look after and still indulges in gambling. Tags- Arlon10 , CoolJGS☺ , clusium , The Herald Erjen . Atheists are also encouraged to share their views. |
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Post by Marv on Nov 8, 2017 10:48:15 GMT
I don't know what the Bible says about it...but every other Christian/Catholic church in my area has bingo, raffles, and a carnival in the summer that features card games and a roulette wheel.
So I'd think it doesn't have a firm stance on gambling.
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Post by Aj_June on Nov 8, 2017 10:55:24 GMT
I don't know what the Bible says about it...but every other Christian/Catholic church in my area has bingo, raffles, and a carnival in the summer that features card games and a roulette wheel. So I'd think it doesn't have a firm stance on gambling. Thanks for that info. The positive attitude of Christians toward gambling seems to be cool. So it seems only Islam is strictly against gambling in the current era. Casinos are banned in most of the Muslim countries. Though so are they in many states of India and some other countries but mostly not for religious reasons. |
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Post by Arlon10 on Nov 8, 2017 11:28:23 GMT
Some risks are necessary. Some business risks are necessary. Unexpected circumstances can force a choice between somewhat equally risky options. Most "gambling" called that is not a necessary risk at all. I suspect most religions including Hinduism discourage people from believing divinity will intervene to help gamblers in "games" of chance, since that might be what some people are inclined to believe, and not what they should believe. The notion that if there were a god it would help people any time they ask is mostly a Christian one. One reason some people become atheists is that they expect a "Christian" god who waits on them to grant their requests, and that rather obviously is not happening in quite many cases. All the religions except Christianity have a god that isn't waiting around to see what he can do for you.
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Post by Aj_June on Nov 8, 2017 11:46:28 GMT
Some risks are necessary. Some business risks are necessary. Unexpected circumstances can force a choice between somewhat equally risky options. Most "gambling" called that is not a necessary risk at all. I suspect most religions including Hinduism discourage people from believing divinity will intervene to help gamblers in "games" of chance, since that might be what some people are inclined to believe, and not what they should believe. The notion that if there were a god it would help people any time they ask is mostly a Christian one. One reason some people become atheists is that they expect a "Christian" god who waits on them to grant their requests, and that rather obviously is not happening in quite many cases. All the religions except Christianity have a god that isn't waiting around to see what he can do for you. You made some very good points , Arlon. Some risks are indeed necessary. In finance, there is a very popular misconception that the term called risk management is about reducing or eliminating risk. It's not about that. Risk management is actually about actively accepting risks that you are more likely to handle and hedging those risks that you are less likely to handle. One can't increase returns by not taking risks so risks are absolute necessity for growth. Gambling though is bad because it is almost totally about chance. Most of time odds are set by book-makers in a way as to fool people into believing that they can discern some pattern or loophole. Most of the sports bettors like me believe that we actually have an idea of which team is going to win based on our sports knowledge. The bookmakers exploit over-confidence of bettors by producing lies which are actually stacked against the favourites. But irrespective of that sports bettors are not able to concede that can't win the game of 50-50 chance. |
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Post by Terrapin Station on Nov 8, 2017 11:47:47 GMT
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Nov 8, 2017 11:51:44 GMT
Not sure.
My opinion is that gambling can easily turn into sinful behavior or addictive behavior so I avoid it.
Any excessive behavior can focus on the negative aspects of an individual. With gambling, you have greed, selfishness, envy, love of riches, and probably other stuff.
To do it for fun, I imagine it's like any other game.
Full Disclosure: I love the games that are tied to gambling - Poker, Blackjack, Slots, etc...I just never play for any stakes or I'm playhing my Hoyle Card Game collection on my computer.
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Post by Aj_June on Nov 8, 2017 11:54:22 GMT
I think Jain religion takes it a bit extreme by putting gambling in category of theft. "Seven addictions are gambling, eating meat, drinking, enjoyment of prostitutes, hunting, stealing and indulgence in other women." |
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Post by Terrapin Station on Nov 8, 2017 12:00:31 GMT
I Jain religion takes it a bit extreme by putting gambling in category of theft. "Seven addictions are gambling, eating meat, drinking, enjoyment of prostitutes, hunting, stealing and indulgence in other women." Well, and the only one of those seven that I see as a moral problem is stealing. I guess I won't become a Jain any time soon. |
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Post by Aj_June on Nov 8, 2017 12:00:56 GMT
Not sure. My opinion is that gambling can easily turn into sinful behavior or addictive behavior so I avoid it. Any excessive behavior can focus on the negative aspects of an individual. With gambling, you have greed, selfishness, envy, love of riches, and probably other stuff. To do it for fun, I imagine it's like any other game. Full Disclosure: I love the games that are tied to gambling - Poker, Blackjack, Slots, etc...I just never play for any stakes or I'm playhing my Hoyle Card Game collection on my computer. I don't know much about Poker, Blackjack, Slots et al but I am mad about sports gambling and especially handicap spread betting on basketball and soccer games. Ironically I have no liking for betting on cricket which is my no.1 fav. I do say that gambling can make you a bit greedy. With me, it is more about my ego than winning money. I just want my sports predictions to be correct and that I should be followed as a tipster. But good thing is that I am able to control my gambling in terms of total money invested. I usually put some amount at start of the season and make small bets all through the season. The most annoying defeat for me was losing more than 500$ on Hillary Clinton. I never expected her to lose. The worst thing that gambling does to me is that it makes me feel like a megalomaniac when I am winning and also makes me feel so dejected when I lose that I almost feel that the world has conspired to make me lose. |
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Nov 8, 2017 12:01:27 GMT
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Nov 8, 2017 12:03:42 GMT
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Nov 8, 2017 12:06:54 GMT
"Seven addictions are gambling, eating meat, drinking, enjoyment of prostitutes, hunting, stealing and indulgence in other women." I admit I'm addicted to prostitutes' enjoyment.  |
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Post by Aj_June on Nov 8, 2017 12:10:38 GMT
"Seven addictions are gambling, eating meat, drinking, enjoyment of prostitutes, hunting, stealing and indulgence in other women." I admit I'm addicted to prostitutes' enjoyment. Lol  I am highly addicted to meat eating and gambling. I don't eat vegetarian food at all. cash is addicted to hunting. we all are doomed. Erjen is a drinker. may be Arlon alone lives a moral life as per Jainism. |
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Post by Aj_June on Nov 8, 2017 12:12:28 GMT
I don't agree with this to be honest. As a gambler I invest my money and time and so I give something to gain back money, ego boost and excitement. |
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Nov 8, 2017 12:17:12 GMT
I admit I'm addicted to prostitutes' enjoyment. Lol I am highly addicted to meat eating and gambling. I don't eat vegetarian food at all. cash is addicted to hunting. we all are doomed. Erjen is a drinker. may be Arlon alone lives a moral life as per Jainism. Unless you count my professional poker playing as gambling (I think it's closer to investing when you know what you're doing), I don't have any of those addictions. Closest thing I'm addicted to is buying new music, movies and books (and, you know, listening to/watching/reading them). |
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Post by Aj_June on Nov 8, 2017 12:23:27 GMT
Lol I am highly addicted to meat eating and gambling. I don't eat vegetarian food at all. cash is addicted to hunting. we all are doomed. Erjen is a drinker. may be Arlon alone lives a moral life as per Jainism. Unless you count my professional poker playing as gambling (I think it's closer to investing when you know what you're doing), I don't have any of those addictions. Closest thing I'm addicted to is buying new music, movies and books (and, you know, listening to/watching/reading them). I wish I had the ability not to be addicted to things like you have. I get frustrated after losing bets but still can't overcome my addiction. Some time my whole day is wasted because my mood is turned off after losing bets. |
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Post by Eva Yojimbo on Nov 8, 2017 12:44:23 GMT
Unless you count my professional poker playing as gambling (I think it's closer to investing when you know what you're doing), I don't have any of those addictions. Closest thing I'm addicted to is buying new music, movies and books (and, you know, listening to/watching/reading them). I wish I had the ability not to be addicted to things like you have. I get frustrated after losing bets but still can't overcome my addiction. Some time my whole day is wasted because my mood is turned off after losing bets. I definitely get the appeal as the emotional roller coaster of winning and losing can be intoxicating. I got over it pretty quickly because I realized in post-hand analyses how my mood swings affected my decision making, which ultimately just meant less winning. I don't think I could tolerate it in a game where I didn't know I had a real edge and the results bore that out. Seems a bit silly to spend so much time/money on games where you're even or negative EV when you can get the same "rush" in a game where you're +EV. |
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Post by clusium on Nov 8, 2017 14:09:16 GMT
This question came to my mind as I recently watched the twilight zone episode called The Fever
To compulsive sports bettors like me gambling is extremely exciting but at the same time exhausting and frustrating thing. My dream is to win the illusive 100000$ streak survivor contest on covers forum by making 25 correct predictions in a row. My hit rate at the moment is 56% which only 1 out of 100 might have after 100 bets. And still I have not come anywhere near 25 straight correct bets.The bets are all handicaped so actual probability of getting each of them correct is 50%. Nobody has been able to win the 100000$ award till now but one person won the $25,000 award (after getting 20 consecutive wins) and won 24 straight bets. I think Islam is strictly against Gambling. There are instances in Mahabharata where Krishna's friend are gambling but Krishna doesn't stop his friends so I guess Hinduism is not much against gambling. I believe some forms of Christianity are also against gambling. Though modern day Christians usually see no problem with gambling as long as one does not over-indulge in it. What do you guys think about gambling? Is gambling against religion in some way? Some times gambling is likened to drinking but with advent of internet I think most of the sports fan indulge in some sort of gambling. My personal opinion is that I will not advice anyone to develop habit of gambling. It is extremely frustrating and addictive. But I personally don't find there is anything immoral about it unless one has a family to look after and still indulges in gambling. Tags- Arlon10 , CoolJGS☺ , clusium , The Herald Erjen . Atheists are also encouraged to share their views. Well, I would have to check the Catechism for that. I'm a big gambler myself, to be honest. I love playing slot machines!!! (especially the double diamond & the triple diamond ones). |
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Post by FilmFlaneur on Nov 8, 2017 14:18:32 GMT
This would seem to rule out any consideration of Pascal's famous Wager then, when humans bet with their lives that God either exists or does not.
Arguably too, a belief in a preferred supernatural entity is something of a gamble in and of itself, especially when there is no more specific and unambiguous evidence, let alone proof, for the existence of one than for another - while, as Pascal realised, a wrong choice might be fatal. As has been discussed here before, the decision over which deity to follow is often dictated by cultural and familial imperatives rather than any cool and informed weighing up of alternative belief systems by the individual (although this may well happen for a few). |
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