Placing bets a sin?

[mercuriel]

Hi there, apologies if this question has been asked before.

I am thinking of placing a small bet on a football team to win another football team this weekend. I am talking about 10 English pounds. If God asks us to be wise stewards of the money He has given us - could this be classed as unwise stewardship and therefore be considered a sin?

 

[PaulfromIowa]

It depends how important ten pounds is to you and your family. Small scale betting is not a sin, unless it interferes with our ability to meet our financial obligations, or we become addicted to gambling.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church:

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.

 

[Petaro]

Gambling is not a sin. It is a waste of opportunity. 10 pounds could go to feed the poor. 10 pounds might bring you two to one on a game, doubling your money. Now 20 pounds could feed more poor. If you lose, you lose the opportunity to bring anything to the Lord. We have so little time to show our love for the Lord we should not lose even one opportunity. Don’t waste your time. Go out wave a scarf and say “Ray team!” have fun and give what you do not need to His poor. You will get better than two to one I can guarantee.

 

[LethalMouse]

1. Not a sin
2. If it is the same money spent on say seeing a movie? Or some other random fun, then it is no different. If you think you will become rich and gamble away you mortgage and put your family in the street… er sinful.

 

[Jared2914]

I like what they say in the commercials. Gambling should be used for entertainment, not investment. If you gamble on who will win the football game, it should be with an attitude of just having fun. You don’t really care about who wins or even losing the money. Just make sure you’re not spending too much money. Ten pounds everyone once in a while isn’t all that much, but if it became ten pounds every day or bets of hundred pounds, I would consider that wasting too much money. The weight of the sin would be based on how much harm the lack of money caused to yourself, your family, or your community.