Is gambling sinful?

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Gambling is not a sin, just pray to St Bingo as many parishes did. 😃
 
I invest in dividend stocks and stock ETFs that pay pay dividends. I wouldn’t call that gambling since you own a piece–albeit a small piece–of the company and then receive a dividend payment, which is a portion of the company’s profits. Sure there’s a risk that the company may cut the dividend or collapse, but investing in those kinds of companies carries a much smaller risk of loss than investing.

As regards to the stock market, you could equate gambling with speculation that Benjamin Graham defined in his book “The Intelligent Investor:”
“An investment operation is one which, upon thorough analysis promises safety of principal and an adequate return. Operations not meeting these requirements are speculative.”
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That’s not to say people make don’t bad decisions or that there isn’t risk in investing after doing your due diligence, or that people who speculate don’t make money, but I wouldn’t call investing in this sense sinful since you’re being prudent and not taking undue risk.

As for a bet on the World Series with your friends or the church bingo that’s not probably sinful. Going to the casino occasionally might not be sinful either, but I wouldn’t necessarily call it smart because the odds are intentionally stacked against you. Those gigantic resorts in Las Vegas don’t get built because people win on a regular basis.
 
I do not believe that gambling in and of itself would be considered sinful, however, like anything else do it in moderation if you are going to do it.
 
There are a few people who have had the stock rise in price after shorting, and had their clock cleaned and the wheels fall off but most of that appears to be a combination of a panic “freeze” and a broker not moving fast enough.

As prices go against you, you are required to deposit more margin. Betting on Tesla might make for such a fool’s errand, so betting on highly volatile stocks carries more danger to those who short.

I suspect there are more people who trade options than short stocks, and few of those can trade (sell) naked options. There was a woman who was featured on Tastytrade some time ago who was selling naked options and came a cropper, but I think she is still active - as in, not wiped out.
 
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jantonov said:
It is written: ‘Do not put the Lord to the test.’
What if you lose, and you lose more than you thought you could afford?
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Don’t gamble more than you can afford. As long you don’t, there is no “test” involved.
 
Even then it is unlikely anyone is going to lose 200%. Margin calls tend to take care of that fairly quickly.

I have had one margin call, and I actually ended up making money on the matter; and the trade itself was a very small proportion of my net.

I also have a friend who was (and still is) day trading options. He got greedy and got caught sideways when Boeing went boing and lost something like 20k in a couple of minutes. Didn’t wipe him out, but he pulled in his horns for about 6 months licking his wounds; he is a bit more cautious now.

Major adverse excursions normally occur to people who are either blinded by greed and are betting the farm, or people who put all their eggs into one basket and forget to watch the basket.

Successful traders - the folks who have become rich by trading - pretty much follow a rule that they never risk more than 1% of their net, if that, on any trade. They also limit the number of trades on at any given time. My friend who got boinged was well over the 1% limit. He got “cute” and forgot about the rule about trying to catch a falling knife. He was, however, trading an account far separated from his retirement portfolio; had he lost it all, he would have lost his “play money”.
 
All things in moderation. Spending 20 bucks on a movie is no worse than spending 20 bucks on the slots. So long as you don’t lose yourself in it.

Gambling IS addictive. And it ruins lives. But if you can engage in it responsibly what is the harm? Other than it’s a sucker’s bet and the house always wins in the long run.
 
I have an IRA. I converted it from a 401k and it did much better after I chose my own stocks and index funds. I’ve never lost anything because I’ve always rebalance my portfolio and never selling even when the market drops. I withstood 2008 great recession and afterwards, stayed the course, and remained patient. Dividend stocks and index funds are my friends. Even now with my IRA dropping, I have no worries whatsoever, as I’ve been through at least 4-5 major drops, but everytime, it bounces back higher with a vengeance.
 
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Temperance sir. That is what it is all about. Temperance. Enjoy gambling it is good fun. Just don’t let it make a slave out of you. If it does then you must stay away from it. If you feel a weakness for it then avoid it and pray for strength and seek refuge in God.
 
to be fair, @jantonov is Orthodox; I wouldn’t expect them to be much concerned about what the CCC says on a particular matter.
 
Rasoleil said:
I have an IRA. I converted it from a 401k and it did much better after I chose my own stocks and index funds.
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Hang in there now, if you have not already gone to cash. I suspect that we have not hit bottom, but I have some doubts that it will go exceedingly lower, unless this pandemic is not resolved in the next few weeks - at least for getting us out of a doubling of cases every 6.2 days.

I went to cash the last week in February as I was going on a hunt and the market appeared to be flattening out.
 
nafatyuk said:
to be fair, @jantonov is Orthodox; I wouldn’t expect them to be much concerned about what the CCC says on a particular matter.
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OK, but when answering “is it sinful” on a Catholic forum, it’s reasonable to assume the answer is based on Catholic teaching. This was an unqualified statement that the act is sinful, and directly contradicts the Catholic teaching the OP was presumably asking about.
otjm said:
I went to cash the last week in February
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Any time you’re trading based on news or market movements, all of the public information is already built into the price, and you’re aiming a bazooka at your feet . . .

Trading in such cases pretty much locks in your losses, while while missing out on gains that are pretty much built into the system!

(and, yes, I am an economics professor, though currently practicing law instead over tuition . . )
 
jantonov said:
What if you gamble a dollar/euro/pound because you want to win a bit of money to be able to donate to a charity?
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Seems to me you should donate to the charity. Don’t gamble with that money. If you donate to the charity and meet your personal obligations, then want to gamble for some fun, then have fun.
 
No, why would it be? Unless you were gambling with money you couldn’t afford to lose.
 
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