Author: Unknown
•3:14 PM
By Graham McKenzie

'Gambling' can be defined as a game of chance, which involves the use of stakes (any valuable possession that you may want to offer in exchange for a chance to win the stakes of all the other players). The winner wins all the stakes of the other players but the worst part of gambling is that the winner need not compensate the losers for their loss.

There are several different forms of gambling, like horse racing, casino, playing cards, or lottery. Lottery is one of the most popular subset of gambling, wherein, pre-decided prizes and gifts are given to the winners. Lottery is commonly played by the middle-income strata of the society, who dream to win a big lottery one day and therefore, keep investing in lottery tickets again and again.

However, gambling and lottery are not patronized in any Islamic nation because in Islam, gambling is a taboo and no Islamic national is supposed to indulge in gaining easy money, which involves the game of chance or which robs the other people of their hard earned money or possessions. Gambling is therefore considered haram by Islam. However, gambling continues to grow popular in the other parts of the world and people love to play lottery and gambling games.

But in the other parts of the world, gambling has gained immense popularity and it is treated not only as a means of earning some extra cash, but also as a means of entertainment. Governments of many countries like Spain, France, Canada, Belgium, U.K, and in several states in the U.S even encourage lotteries and conduct mega lottery bonanzas from time to time. The revenues so generated are used for improving public utilities and general facilities for the public, such as using the funds from lottery for construction of schools, playgrounds or hospitals.

The craze for lotteries and gambling is very high across the globe and people from all income groups are found to be indulging in gambling. In fact, lotteries have earned the name - "tax on stupidity" because there are very remote chances of winning in a lottery, when compared to the other popular forms of gambling, and yet we stupidly keep buying lottery tickets in the hope of winning some day. Since the revenue generated from gambling is used for social service such as for the construction of roads, schools and hospitals, it is used more or less like the taxes paid by us. Hence it has earned the name - "tax on stupidity".

It has been reported from many parts of the world that people are taking up gambling not as a means of entertainment, but as a serious way of generating income for themselves. This obsession to gamble has taken a far more ugly shape and many individuals are reported to be suffering from compulsive gambling, which is a psychological disorder, wherein the patient cannot overcome the desire to continue gambling, although he may have incurred huge loss because of it.

Lottery or gambling as such is not a bad means of entertainment. It is just that gambling using stakes is objectionable because by doing so, your hard earned money is at stake. Unless you are rich enough and loss of a few thousand dollars is not a very big affair for you, you must not go ahead with gambling any longer. Instead of stakes, you can use gifts to make your gambling experience even more enjoyable.

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