Is Playing Lottery Different From Gambling?
Gambling is nothing but indulging in a game of luck that requires every player to put in something valuable as stake. Those who win sweep away all the stakes and they need not even compensate the other players for the loss incurred by them.
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.
In fact, many top nations in the world have legalized lottery and have even opened Government-run state-lotteries to amass the public money and utilize it for the common benefit of the public. For instance, in countries like Spain, France, Canada, Belgium, U.K, several states in U.S (including Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, etc), there are several licensed casinos operating, because in these countries, lotteries are a popular form of entertainment and the social stigma associated with it is minimal. Therefore, gambling is considered not like a vice, but as a fun-filled game in these countries. And the proceedings form the lotteries and gambling is used for building public amenities.
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.
Gambling must only be played for the sake of pure enjoyment and not as a means of earning a livelihood. Lottery or gambling is acceptable as long as nothing valuable is put at stake and little prizes are used as stakes, so that no one loses out on any hard earned possessions.
Graham McKenzie is the content coordinator for a South African UK Lottery Ticket website, where you can buy tickets to play the UK lottery and participate in the Euro millions draw.
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