Q&A: Is Sports Betting & Gambling Permissible? Rabbi Yitzchak Breitowitz

what are the halos of gambling and sports betting so here is the problem there the gamar says there are two different halic problems with gambling and betting we'll we'll treat them as the same problem number one is a rule that is called as asak is any type of commitment that you're making on the assumption that it won't come to pass meaning uh when I make a bet I'm making an assumption that I'll win the bet I'm making the Assumption my team is going to win uh so in such a situation there's an opinion that says that even if you lose uh the other sky is not allowed to collect the money because he's stealing from me because I never really intended to give it to him by the way it's not only betting this is true for penalty Clauses let's assume that I agree to paint your house and the contract says that if I don't finish the job by March 5 I will pay you a penalty of $10 a day for every day that I don't a penalty Clause a penalty Clause is not enforceable Hally because it's an asak I didn't figure I would lose so one opinion says that all betting is forbidden because of asak uh there's another opinion that says that betting is prohibited because it is not a constructive activity it is not contributing to the building of the world in a positive way now the gar says says there's a there's a difference between and and that is es would prohibit even a single bet other there words betting is a prohibited activity gambling is a prohibited activity if you collect on a gambling debt you are a thief that's the first interpretation like the second interpretation that it's a nonproductive parasit like activity it would only be prohibited if that is your main parosa meaning if that's not how you live you just do it on the side it would actually be M that's a tremendous Kola right other words according to the second interpretation occasional gambling would be okay as long as it's not your main living so there's Aus in if we go with the reason of or we go with so there is a basis particularly for would be more strict there is AIC basis to permit sporadic occasional sports betting and again it's a very technical area because some differentiate between stom betting and actually putting your money on the table meaning in a pot some say if you put your money on the pot and you separate yourself from your money then you do understand you may lose the money meaning they differentiate between Stam I I bet I'll pay you if I lose versus the money goes in the pot so the truth of the matter is there is a certainly a basis to permit occasional bedding where money is put into a pot but the postum say that uh it is a bad habit uh it is an addictive habit uh in fact you know I mean you know I'm not saying every sports betting you're going to be an addict but uh gambling addiction is a reality it actually is a reality as strange as it would be I once spoke um at kabad in Las Vegas and it's interesting you go to Las if you've been to Las Vegas has a from Community there are day schools I mean Las Vegas is not like totally crazy there actually is a nice Orthodox at least there was I haven't been there for a while there's a nice Orthodox community in Las Vegas but one thing I'll tell you you know uh in the airport in the bathrooms there are slot machines in the bathrooms you know because you're coming there so theab tells me that he gets a lot of calls from religious guys who kind of go there for a weekend and he says guy calls him up I mean it's not funny it's tragic he says I don't know what to do he says I just lost my house I don't know how to tell my my family you know I I was gambling and I was on a winning streak so I decided to up the ante and I gambled away my house so when I get home I got to tell my family we have no place to live I mean it sounds like ludicrous but it is a very very serious addiction so by and large it's better not not to get into it yeah so that's that's the real question uh like any interpretation so the stock market it is said uh is is is just considered to be like business like any business you may win you may lose but um I think the second reason is even more problematical meaning you're not doing anything productive with your money well um in other words unlike a bus business where you buy and you sell things you know all you're doing is uh transferring wealth I mean stock uh stock speculations seem to be exactly the same thing I mean uh you're not building an industry you're not building a business You're simply speculating on prices uh it is actually very difficult to truly say what is the difference between Stock Investing and pure pure gambling but some have said that there is an economic difference in the sense that um the secondary markets in Securities affect the primary Market again what I mean is by this let's assume that somebody is making a business where they manufacture cars or Widgets or computers or whatever it would be uh now obviously they're doing something constructive because they're selling objects to the public that the public uses now even though it's true that the people that buy and sell their stock later are not really doing anything but simply financially gambling on the price of stock but in truth the better the price of the stock is in the markets later the more the business will be able to raise its own Capital by issuing stock so in a sense what is called the secondary markets do affect the primary ability of a business to raise capital and therefore it becomes a productive activity because it enhances the ability of a business to make its computers or make its widgets but you know that that's complicated a little bit uh to try to figure that out