Gambling is it morally wrong?

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Maui71

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Down here in Florida particularly Miami-Dade there is a referendum on the Jan 29 to vote for allowing gambling at certain pari-mutuels, 3 actually, and it is limited to slot machines (Vegas style). Now while I do not gamble an opposition group formed to fight the referendum calls it morally wrong and that is the totality of their argument.

Do you think it is morally wrong and why if so?
 
Dear Maui,

I spent 15 years being a United Methodist, they do not believe in gambling. It is viewed as a social evil. I tend to agree. It is one thing to spend $1 on a bingo game or lottery ticket. Unfortunately gambling is highly addictive and people end up spending their earnings and savings trying to win lotteries and all kinds of gaming, in effect losing their marriages, homes and shirts to gambling. It’s like drinking. One or two drinks may be ok, but how many lives have been destroyed by alcoholism? 😦
 
This is what the Catechism says:

2413 Games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement. Unfair wagers and cheating at games constitute grave matter, unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant.
 
I agree with them.

The catholic teaching is 2413 which means minor gambling is morally neutral while serious gambling is sinful. Serious gambling involves depriving one of necessary resources (food, shelter, etc). Additionally related sins are unfair wagers, cheating, or taking advantage of others. For example suppose two people work side by side for 25 years. One spends only $5 per week on the lottery. The other places the $5 a week in a retirement account at the end of the 25 years the non gambler has ~$21,000 ( that is $10,000 inflation adjusted dollars) so is that amount small or large? And yet there is another problem when gamblers lose too much money what happens? The non gamblers fund welfare both public and private for them! We all pay increased interest rates every single day to cover the non-payers as gamblers that have lost.
 
Celeste88 said:
Dear Maui,

I spent 15 years being a United Methodist, they do not believe in gambling. It is viewed as a social evil. I tend to agree. It is one thing to spend $1 on a bingo game or lottery ticket. Unfortunately gambling is highly addictive and people end up spending their earnings and savings trying to win lotteries and all kinds of gaming, in effect losing their marriages, homes and shirts to gambling. It’s like drinking. One or two drinks may be ok, but how many lives have been destroyed by alcoholism? 😦
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This is where self-control enters in, right?
 
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