Gambling | Rabbi Anthony Manning

everybody thank you for coming uh thank you again for bearing with me last week with my croaky voice and for all the uh offers of Rola Suites Etc um barem things are somewhat improved although I'm still got a little bit of a Wheezy cough just to approve it um but I shall try and avoid coughing as much as possible I'd like to thank the sponsors the uh entire Academic Year is sponsored anonymously Nish bras branded and zelik Ben and also today's sh specifically is sponsored by Anna and Simon wisman Simon actually sent me a note to say that even though they sponsored the Shar they couldn't actually be here today they had an appointment um but the shear is sponsored by Anna and Simon to Mark the 25th yard site of Natan May B shim haken and his father whose yard site is on the on the 18th of tavit so uh thank you to those sponsors and it should be an alyah for those n shamas if I could remind you please to turn off your phones um and we will get into this topic which is fascinating and one which I already how we already mentioned has actually been on the da recently um although that's not why I chose it um one of the reasons I chose it is because uh believe it or not this is actually becoming a major problem within our own Society um there is something of an epidemic of gambling addiction especially amongst young men in the Orthodox Society in the Orthodox world in America if anyone is interested I referenced at the bottom here a uh one of Rabbi Scott Khan's recent episodes on the Orthodox conundrum was dedicated to this issue uh and I brought you a reference there and he had a a speaker there who is a very well-known researcher and educator who was talking about the epidemic propor proportions I've actually encountered this myself in recruiting uh for high school students even young women Orthodox women who come into their Gap with gambling addictions um and we'll talk a little bit about that we'll talk a little bit about the topic and then once we're on the topic of kind of uh societal Vice issues although we don't hear that word very often these days uh I'd like to talk a little bit over the next couple of weeks about other related topics specifically drugs focused which we've never really spoken about as well um but uh we'll we'll get on to that when we get there but let's for today look at the issue of gambling there is a global gambling Market which is approaching a trillion dollars a year which is a lot of money uh North America obviously is absolutely full off casinos we don't we don't see it here really because obviously casinos interestingly are still illegal in uh in Israel which is I'm I'm surprised it's lasted quite that long people used to have to go down to Jericho eure if you remember toh to go for their casino but now of course it's an online world and online gambling and betting is worth uh already well over 5860 billion dollars and it's uh due to reach $82 billion by 2030 and children and teenagers are much more likely to develop gambling addictions specifically online gamling and this has got a lot worse in the last few years because for any of those who were following the legislation in America America so in in 2018 the Supreme Court in America struck down a piece of legislation called the professional amateur sports protection act that act was basically made it illegal to have sports gambling in any of the States of America other than Nevada which obviously has had gambling as long as anyone can remember and I think also there was an exception for Atlantic City in Jersey as well but basically other states were not allowed to do that that was struck down as being unconstitutional and therefore all the states now immediately jumped into this and legalized sports betting and that has become a massive massive EP epidemic um obviously these young men mostly a little bit young women but the young men have got access to money somehow and they've got access to an online connection of course this became much worse during covid when people were sitting there for days and weeks and months on end looking for Action thinking about what to do with this computer screen in front of them so this is one of the things they got into so we're going to talk talk a little bit about some of these halakic issues I've listed some here um could you ever just regard it as Recreation or entertainment does it matter matter whether you're a compulsive Gambler or whether you're just buying a lottery ticket every now and then what about a slot machine you know sticking a coin in there and pulling the pulling the handle and see what happens what about playing drel okay it's a bit late now because kanuk is finished but don't know if any of you are still Aid grel players um Chinese auctions charity auctions what about juice running gambling websites which are mostly used by non-jews I know people who actually make their entire livelihood by running gambling websites and they make a lot of money I can assure you what about this uh issue what about certain Risky Business Financial options binary options uh what point does playing the stock market just become a a more elaborate form of gambling we'll talk about that as well um and also are these people disqualified as witnesses will those of you who remember the gamor just the last couple of days on the D that's one of the discussions there as well and there are a whole bunch of hash gaic questions which we need to look at um the kind of financialization of everything in our society these days everything has to come down to money we'll talk about those issues soon okay let's look at the Town discussion I like this issue because it is it fits right into our brief if you like for halakic issues and hashkafic issues and it's quite a complicated halakic discussion so hopefully I'll be I'll make it as clear as I can and we will understand it well together so it starts off with two Mish first of all there's a mishna in Ros this is talking about Witnesses who are valid and invalid to witness the new moon if you remember back in the day they used to have witnesses come to the bedin I saw the moon this is what it looked like Etc so number one says the Mish rash these following list of people are invalid if they come and they say they've seen the moon we cannot accept their testimony and the first on the list have m theia people who play with cubes so you and I call those dice they've been around forever that is the first dice players they are invalid we'll see why malav ribis okay Mal ribis people who land on uh ribis people who give Hal outs who on interest who take interest for their loans and what's a MAF pigeon races not something that I've been particularly connect with over the years I don't know if people still do Pigeon Racing people do so have a look over the page so the bar nura immediately jumps in and the rambam explains a little bit what these categories are number uh two kuia says the r is this is a short hand for any kind of game okay one it's agreed that one is going to take the money of the other according to according to the rules of the game meaning these are the rules of the game I'll bet on this you'll bet on this I'll take your money you'll take my money people are taking each other's money and what we'll see in a minute is that there is a problem with this money that is being handed over during gambling what about the pigeon races so the B says number three basically it's the same idea it's a kind of betting ring IM okay is your y gonna reach the end before my y now you might ask whether there is a difference between these two kinds of games is there any skill involved and we're going to get to this very soon is there skill involved in the role of the dice is there skill involved in training up your pigeons so that they'll have that little advantage over V's pigeons could be you know could be or knowing which pigeons to bet on you know recognizing when you look at them which ones are the healthy ones Etc we will see that one of the nain between these even though said there is really no difference between them one difference might be whether they are skilled or not skilled and we'll see why that makes a difference in a minute okay that's the first mission that these people people who play dice people who race pigeons um are ex are excluded from witness testimony for the new moon now another mission number four the this is talking about General witness testimony in the not specifically about the new moon again the dice player theis the person who takes interest on his loans MAF the person who races the piges but importantly and uniquely here now we see a second opinion when does this apply this this prohibition on these people as as valid Witnesses a time when they don't have any other meaningful employment this is how they make their money they're professional gamblers Shalo shaloh if they have another uh way of making money they have another income stream this is just a recreational thing then they are valid as Witnesses now does that mean you're allowed to gamble or does that mean you're not allowed to gamble but if you did it's not as bad as being a professional Gambler so we'll see but what we see here very interestingly is that Reb yehuda's opinion appears in Sanhedrin as being a qualifier he's more lenient but he doesn't appear in the mission there in rashash so the gamar analyzes this in sanedrin number five as follows M A if you're playing dice and gambling so what could possibly be wrong with this you're just playing a game why is this a problem I'm a RAB so remember the people involved here RAB comes along and says the following we're going to have to learn what this term means it's an important monetary term in from the word you're leaning on something but it's a kind of casual leaning on so you're just leaning on it what does that mean as as is where I make a condition um in a transaction that I make with you and I had no intention of ever having to or needing to fulfill that condition even though I said yes if I don't pay you back then the following will happen in my mind there was no way that that was ever going to be a reality I had complete confidence I will be able to fulfill this condition and therefore in my own mind I never in a million years expected to have to to do that and says the gamarra gambling is who are and is not a Kenan it's not a good Kenyan meaning if I enter in we'll see some examples of this if I enter into one of these ASAT agreements with you and the gamor is going to decide that or suggest that gambling is one of these when I take your money away because you bet and you lost then that's stolen money because even though you agreed technically to give me the money you never thought you'd lose you knew you'd win your pigeon is the prize pigeon and you looked at my and you thought oh yeah I'll bet the house on that one and something happened something crazy happened you lost no I was never intending to pay that and therefore when you take his money it's stolen money can so that's the first opinion says no that's not called I'll Define for you in a minute he says but this gambling is not real as the problem is not that it's stolen money it's not stolen money but the problem is that this person who's gambling is not doing anything useful with his life or her life they're not involved in building the world they're sitting there gambling their money away so what is the that na between these two opin if the guy has another another profession like R said meaning if you are not a professional Gambler if you are do something honest for a living like being a lawyer what what what could what could be more honest as a living than being a lawyer and then occasionally you have the little Tipple occasionally you have a gambling so he says that's not going to be that's not going to be the same as somebody who is according to RAB Bama every gambling transaction is stolen money fine because here look we see rabud says when does it when does this restriction apply only if that's the only profession they have fine so if that's so clear that if you have another profession then it's not a problem Alma now we have a problem [Music] Alma the reason that it's a problem to gamble is because you're not involved in meaningful full gain full employment so Cas Rami barama so that's a problem for Rami bar Rami bar said it was because of stolen money it was nothing to do with your general life's contribution to the world it was every transaction is stolen ah and if you want to tell me that this is a mlo between Rabon and rabuda and Rabon takes one view which is stricter on the stolen money and rabuda says no says no and this is actually very important because the G wants to suggest that there really is no here everybody actually has the same opinion and when rabuda came and said aat when does this restriction of gambling apply if you don't have an any any other profession he's not arguing with the first opinion he's explaining the first opinion whenever Reb Yuda comes and says a maai he's not arguing he's explaining really everybody agrees surely the gambling is only an issue if it's your only professional job so the gamar concludes no one second yeah no actually you have a debate between Rami and raet as to whether there is indeed a m in this mishna according to Rami bar there is a m in the Mish and he says he wants to follow the first opinion which is all gambling is prohibited stolen money and according to the second opinion ra he says no I don't think there is a m in this mishna everybody really agrees with the qualification that it's only a problem if you don't have another job okay so that's where the gamorra leaves it why would it be an issue if you don't have another job what what what are we concerned about just because you're a professional Gambler so I want to introduce you to the meiri in number six because the Mii makes four suggestions which actually take us into the kishkas if you like what is the problem with gambling why is this an issue apart from we'll see soon The Addictive issues so look at what he says here says the me ER number six pish he gives four reasons the reason for this prohibition is this person who has only a professional gambling life he's not building the world she's not building the world it's not a way to be contributing to the human race and everybody has to be doing something constructive for the human race that's number one and number two and they don't really get business the cavanas adus they don't really know what it means to be a witness because they're not involved in a proper business life they sit at home online gambling making bets they don't really know what it means to be you know to have a disagreement with somebody and to be called to court and to give testimony they're not involved properly in that business world so you can't trust them number two number three all they ever do is lie they're professional Liars think of a poker player all you're ever doing is bluffing all you're ever doing is lying he says these people live in a world of Lies the Enid gas their shik and they don't even think that they need to defend themselves they don't feel there's anything wrong with it they don't see what's wrong with lying and they therefore they won't have any compulsion they won't have any problem standing up on a witness stand and just lying because they become constant Liars these people and finally he says and they don't get how hard it is to make a paros they don't have empathy they don't look at people's hardworking lives and say you know something it's it's tough it's tough to make money the and therefore they don't care about taking other people's money away it's a very interesting psychological profile psychologically profiling somebody who is a professional Gambler they don't have business experience they don't have empathy they don't appreciate the value of money they don't have they don't want know what's true about life they they merge lying and Truth all the time it's actually a very interesting psychological approach and sayir that's why we have a problem with this person who's a professional Gambler okay fine so that for sure is going to be a problem somebody who is just cuts of the chase somebody who is a professional Gambler will indeed have a halakic problem being a witness we'll see the and therefore I've never had this situation if you're officiating in a wedding and uh the the brings his two ADM along and show me shabas and show me Mitzvah and one of them runs a professional gambling online you know that's that's a real Shila is that personal valid as a as a halakic witness for the wedding okay good so if they just do it we'll see what the deal is but uh but if they're a professional there are people who are professionals again I'm telling you one of my students has a brother who does this so you want say that the fact is you're a good businessman yeah bus ah good okay good so maybe one of the issues in the meiri won't apply because you know how to do business but maybe still that's not considered to be a business which is building the world I question how do you draw the line what if I'm what if I Import and Export weapons is that is that a a business which is building the world either I they didn't say that maybe it's all these combination of factors together let's just go on a little bit so let's look at as so okay that's one side of the coin what's that yeah The House Always Wins right okay fine he's daa the the guy who wants to be a business partner right maybe not number seven have a look at here so is it as what is as how does this work so let's look a little bit more detail at this why you might think he was and why you might think he was not so as works like this number seven this man receives land from somebody else he rents it or he leases or he makes an agreement with it the and he says to the person who's giving the land the person giving him the land says I'm only giving to this land this land to you on the basis you're going to work it you're G to you develop it I don't want it to lie fallow I don't want it to be empty it's very important to me that it doesn't lie empty the and he says to him okay you're right I've got it I'm not going toow allow it to lie he says to the person who gave him the property if I allow it to life follow alausi I give you a thousand gold coins ridiculous amount of money he clearly has no intention of letting its life alow and he promises him as a condition the most crazy amount of money if indeed he breaks that promise okay so what happened here something came up the O tilter and he ended up leaving a third of the land phow so the guy takes him to Bon and says this is exactly the thing that I told you you couldn't do so what happened I'm a Nar so the judges in Nar in N said the following it's the the yah that he has to give over in Damages mayor vtin valala vilsa 333 and 13 gold coins you owe to him because you promised him a thousand gold coins if you left itow and you left the third of itow so pay up 333 and a third ver comes and says no no no no this was only ever an AS and it's not binding there's an interesting discussion r z talks about The Merchant of Venice where uh the promise was a pound of Flesh if I don't pay back the money was that would that ever have been enforceable as a as a contractual term or is that exactly what we're talking about here it's an as no one ever thinks that they're going to give over a pound of Flesh they never Meed Etc the rasham over the page on page three says this is how it works someone you promise something to do something for someone else you make a condition that this is what I'm going to do in the future and you have in your own mind when you make this condition there's no question that it's never going to happen you're never going to have to pay up you're all you're completely in control you're going to do this you're not going to have to pay and then when the time comes something goes crazy goes wrong you are there's an and suddenly you're held back the you can't keep the word and it's completely surprising that's called an as you had in mind something you were in complete control and then something crazy went wrong okay that's not what I had in mind so how does that apply to gambling so look at number nine so Rashi says when raes turns around and says okay if that's an as then gambling gambling is not an as why so he says here number n so what is a real matter gambling doesn't count why if I promise you that if I leave it follow like we saw there in I'm gonna pay you a Fortune of money because he's thinking I'm in control I can stop this from happening I can promise millions of pounds millions of dollars if I have to do it if if I break because it's in my Controla and therefore originally Kim when he made that condition he never intended to do it he never thought it would happen in the end something went wrong but here with gambling what's he relying on gambling is a game of luck as well even if there's an element of skill there's a ton of luck and therefore what do you mean you never thought you would lose what kind of a crazy thing is of course you knew you would lose everybody loses in gambling anyone with any sense realizes that eventually you know everybody loses except for the Cino you know and you see these nightmare situations of young people online who who go from like half you know $75 to half a million dollars wi three days and then they start losing the money and they lose everything and by the way on on the online gambling is they give you extra money and they lend you money and they keep you in the game and they keep you hooked Etc we'll talk about the the uh the addiction issue so with gambling what were you even thinking about nevertheless you made it tonight you're bound by that because everyone's sensible should have known that you might lose it's not like a regular ASM and therefore you have this debate is gambling a problem because of the that's your profession and you have no business skill and you have no reliability or are we having this problem of as so very briefly the let me quote for you a couple of things look at the rambam the rambam in number 10 11 and 12 gives a fairly straightforward analysis and this becomes the spardy SA number 10 people who are wicked are uh disqualified from being Terah Witnesses or on a Terah level they're disqualified and he quotes the posic there and then he says in number 11 in terms of re rabic disqualifications what does it mean to play dice number 11 oros they play with bits of wood they play with stones or B or with bones they have dice whatever name they make a deal between them anyone who wins over their friend in this game they're going to take such and such money says the rambam Harry you are a thief the reason that you're excluded from a witness to be a precau witness is you are a thief you're taking stolen money he never intended to pay that money he never thought he was going to lose even though you want to say yeah well he gave over the M money willingly you just took his money for nothing as a as a joke as a game is a or anyone who races animals or or Birds if you take money for having one a race horse racing whatever it is every element of gambling is prohibited now straightforward enough all gambling is prohibited and we'll see raaji says even buying a lot ticket is prohibited even buying a lottery ticket is prohibited we'll see radi is very strict on this issue but then surprisingly the rambam's then seems to take the other side of the story number 12 there are other Wicked people who are Exempted or rather disqualified on a rinic level someone who plays dice but that's only if he's a professional Gambler so this is a very classic example where the rambam seems to have taken both sides of the debate remember there was a debate in the gamarra is it because it's gazel or is it because this is your profession two different views so the rambam says it's gazel and it's because it's your profession what's going on here make your mind up so most of theor say it's actually not complicated the rambam is simply saying as follows all gambling is prohibited when is it prohibited to the point that it actually disqualifies you as a witness if you're a professional gambler but if you're not a professional Gambler you're just breaking every time you gamble you're just not a you're not disqualified as a witness and that seems to be the we'll see in a minute says that um that gambling is a major problem now what about the ashkenazim so let's have a look top of page four comes along toas and says a very interesting thing to says as follows actually he says I'm not so sure that gambling is prohibited totally look at number 13 to comes along and says even though we see there's a debate between the ra who says that it's G and R Who says it's all about your profession we like and he brings from another quote it's only by professional gambling and from here it sounds says not just you're not exempt you're not disqualified as a witness if you play professional but you're actually allowed to bet you're allowed to play dice and even the view there in who says it's this that's according to the other opinion that's the Ra's opinion we don't follow that opinion says no that's not what we follow as long as you have another profession and you're just a recreational Gambler an occasional Gambler you're not taking anyone's stolen money and it's even permitted to do but then he adds something very interesting says but that's only in number 14 if you put the money on the table the money has to be on the table like I'm in and like I raise you a thousand or whatever it is if the money's on the table and you gambled and you won you can take the money but if you're only saying the guy's going to have to pay up later I'm going to enforce this instead I'm going to get your money out of you there's no Kenyan how can that be the Kenyan has to be the table in front of you there has to be money on the table so even the ashim who are going to maybe be a little bit more lenient in principle on betting and say that it's not actually gazel that's only if the money's there on the table if the money's not on the table then then you're taking somebody these money away without youker right now I'm not a big poker person I must tell you I don't think I've ever played poker in my life but I must tell you when I was at school I was on the school Bridge team I don't know if that counts um but but we didn't play for money okay so so I was just on the bridge I was never a very good bridge player but I used to I used to play a little bit maybe something to look forward to when I retire maybe but may maybe not but the poker the money is right there okay fine so it's a relatively straightforward picture thein basically say all gambling is prohibited the ashkenaz and say in principle you can gamble but you can't do it if unless the money is right on the table and if you're professional everyone agre that you're an invalid witness then there's this strange comment I wanted to bring with you bring to you of the riyaz and Raz is a very interesting Parish the ryaz is I brought you in the footnote here RAB yesah Ben elani an Italian Rabbi from the 12th 13th century there was a grandfather and a grandson both of them called Raz and uh he's quoted here he says as follows look what he says in number 50 he's talking about shabas and this is why I wanted to bring you this because it's fascinating Nim oh we have women here there are women on shabas who are playing with nuts or apples they like playing basically marbles on the floor they're rolling things on the floor Harry Zur why is it women I assume because he says the men should be sitting and learning teror and what the women are doing is they're playing the Plame marbles on the floor you're not you're not allowed to do why are you not allowed to do that and it's a shabas Prohibition we're not you're not allowed to play ball games where there's a ball in close contact with the floor because when you you see oh look the ground is a bit uneven here let's just you know make the ground even on shabas because we need to be able to play bull or whatever it is you playing with the balls you can't do that that's actually you're not allowed to do that the and then he says something that everybody's wondering what he means and if they're playing competitively okay one against the other they can't even play on a weekday because it's like playing dice what is going on here you're not allowed to play competitively even on a weekday because there's some kind of General prohibition on competing each other so look here I brought you the sh and he raises another game number 16 this is very strange what is he talking about this is a skilled game okay he's also alluding to something else which is on chabas I don't know if you're aware of this you're not allowed to draw lots for things which are random or cast random lots for different portions the gamarra talks about because we're worried that's a commercial type transaction someone will write it down you got this she got this he got that this is not talking about drawing Lots all of Day end of this first line of 16 according to you that you can't compete competitively you shouldn't be able to playak you shouldn't be able to play Shak what is Shak chess chess sh sh she as in the idea the check mate exactly the king is dead shakat Etc so you and and but and CH play chess meaning you know you're not allowed to play chess he's horrified and then he says that it must be that we're only talking about people who play for money you know people who play for money that's a problem that's a problem on shabas that's a problem during the week I don't know if there are betting rings around chess games they probably are but he says don't tell me that you're a also to play Shak because Jews Jews mamush play this and it can only be that it's an issue on shabas obviously for money or even during the week for money as well and I I'm not going to read it inside it's basically as we just summarized theim give a very strict sa and the ash open up the window a little bit maybe for a little bit of gambling but they say look the money has to be on the table if the money is not on the table then that is a major problem the Mish Brewer is unhappy go over to page five and then we'll look at some very interesting hashkafic issues look go over to page five the mission bre says okay so you're an ashkanazi and you feel that you found a like a heter there that okay the money's on the table by the way the villon says that the table has to be jointly owned by both people it's very hard to actually to satisfy all these conditions but then the Mish says no I'm not happy 19 the KU this as far as he's concerned is rinic theft he Pas basically like the farim you never the guy who's paying you money never never really intended to pay that money and therefore it's prohibited on shabas it's prohibited during the week it's prohibited completely and he brings down in the footnotes there in the even this is the rambam's opinion and even if you want to cetch that like oh we don't pass like the ramb I give you another bunch of reasons to says why you shouldn't be gambling ever at all and we're going to get to those reasons in a minute so basically bottom line uh I don't think you really have a header to gamble I'm not even sure you could even put a money in a slot machine and and do that because the asazin say uh theim certainly say it's a problem as gazim seems to even go like theim you might want to argue I suppose that the slot people who own the slot machines are already too pleased to give you the winnings because they'll just keep you hooked and you'll complete you'll put more money in and more money in and more money in so maybe a professional gambling house might be different but basically you're on thin ice yes oh no probably not I mean that's a good question if if uh if people what are you saying right adelstein or eron adelstein okay then then we get into Politics as well because of uh um adelon year so look I'm not getting into all of that now as to whether you should we'll see about Stocker in a minute whe whe that makes any difference okay so the halaka is relatively straightforward but what about a lottery you want to play the lottery what's the problem with playing the lottery so have a look here in uh number 20 so there's a bunch of very interesting uh uh sources here from here to the end of the sheet let's do them really quickly but they're they're fascinating so the revash the revash comes in and says the following number 20 bottom of page five there's a blue is he blocking something there's a blue car causing a problem there's a blue car causing a problem if you have a blue car then maybe maybe your car is in trouble um just go go and have a look have a look at number 20 please okay so you even want you want to follow the more opinions it's not says the r as follows that says it's not an issue of and look how he describes gambling [Music] it's a disgrace it's a disgusting thing it's a dis it's a terrible terrible thing and then he says and it's also dangerous that is a paraphrase of mish where it says look how many people have lost everything when it comes to gambling they don't realize this has been recognized and it's clear in the someone who makes a that he won't gamble anymore to try and stop themselves gambling you're not allowed as a r to do you may not be Master at n it's something which is deeply deeply damaging on many many different levels look at number 21 RMI Feinstein has a CH about playing Bingo I'm not trying to to ruin your recreational time here but look what he says what about card games he says Bingo and bingo of course HEI and he says I'm not sure that like the that there's a real absolute these are always things you shouldn't be doing also meaning and again where where you draw the line you know somebody wants to have a you know bingo in the care home you know you got to close it all down as mha relat him everybody has to have a you know an educational speaker I don't know it's an interesting question but he he's going to say basically uh mha lat nobody should be doing Bingo um and also it's B's man have a look here in the um and and the issue of hard work look in 22 says there is a view and I'm surprised nobody asked this already if the problem is what's the problem with betting and playing with non-jews that never made that is when it comes to taking away the non-jew money they only made with the Jews money on a Torah level it's permitted kazal came in and said on on a rinic level it's prohibited so why can't you gamble with non-jews what's the problem and there is no there and that's actually in the there's an of and again where do you draw this line you know everybody needs to relax everybody needs to sit down watch a movie and chill out every now and then people are stressed that's not called being until it is called being where do you draw that line you have to be honest with yourself and it's very hard to be honest with yourself when you need to relax you need to have fun you need to chill out that's perfectly reasonable but at a certain point like people become in this it's called gambling becomes more than just a recreation yes men and women in this world are not meant to be using their time other than for learning thinking discussing yes and helping people building the world creating things this is not what you were put here to do to sit and gamble doesn't matter if the guy is a non-jew or the woman is a non-jew the point is you shouldn't be doing this so two hard work the value of hard work look at number 23 it's good for you to work hard for a living it's good for you a quick easy Buck is a very bad thing number 24 re says what does he say sleeping late in the morning the and too much alcohol at lunchtime okay and that you will how that works that's the that's the end of the rest of the day then you know and I remember when I used to be a lawyer it used to be a very different world in the 1990s as a lawyer there was a lot of lunchtime client entertainment and that is the end of the day I promise you okay and sitting and talking to kids stupid conversations that don't mean anything and hanging out with uh with ignorant people it takes you out of the world and the fororo says a fascinating thing which I found very impactful he explains in number 25 on per so you're not going to get the next world because it's useless activity again and it's not even doing anything for you in this world and when you get involved in this [Music] stuff meaning there's only one thing worse than wasting time which is wasting time and you don't even realize you're wasting time meaning at least if we're going to waste time we should be conscious of the fact that we're wasting time but when when you start getting into stuff that you don't even realize you're wasting time then that's really that's really a very negative thing okay so there's a lot of negative aspects to this as well and then there's the addictive angle because it's very interesting gambling has has been recognized as an addiction all the way through and and I know people you know whose family has been destroyed I'm sure you do over the years that you've seen people buy these things and it's very it's very difficult for anyone to to understand unless they've been in this situation have a look at number 26 the gar says here um people who play dice these are people who play with a little tokens maybe P are like chips you know they have I don't mean like fish and chips chips I mean like chips in the casino chips but life is in bu even people who are playing with shs how do we know when they've done Chu from gambling how do we know when they've managed to kick that habit only when they've destroyed their dice it's not good enough it says to put them in the cupboard and say I'm not going to do that anymore the only way it says the gor you can do Chua from gambling is to destroy the actual things that you use for gambling that you couldn't even use them for an innocent play without any money meaning it's the gamar seems to say and this is very interesting we'll see Rabbi tski in a minute there are certain addictions where once you've managed to keep like on the wagon as it were even the slightest Journey back into that whole mindset is enough to destroy the whole uh the whole recovery and the gamorra recognizes this fascinatingly the rehabilitation has to be psychologically irreversible you just don't own these things anymore and ra comes in Number 27 it says he quotes there from the r that we saw so many people have been destroyed but even when it comes to the lottery he says an innocent Lottery there are people who buy so many tickets they they they spend their whole salary on tickets and they thinking maybe there will be one ticket that wins you know someone's got to win and in the end they become like they're sold they become slaves to this and they only go out when they're injured they lose their their property they lose their money even if you want to cetch out that the ra says that the are allowed to gamble a little bit okay and he disagrees with have accepted the as absolute we follow the go to YF and yosf will tell you what you have to do that of course is from you know the par a couple of weeks ago but says the the the says R we go by the BET r as well in fact and I mentioned this before here the r the study of Rad's halic methodology was a PhD thesis of R bino ryam Lao who as I'm sure many people either know him personally or read his things he wrote the book miman adaran which talks about the idea of mar to Maran R and how that he turned it into a fascinating safer I recommended if anyone's interested in hakik methodology but he says stay away from it if you look here on Rabbi tski of course Rabbi tski was I'm sure well known to many people here he writes about addiction in very many uh areas it's now widely recognized by the way that gambling is one of those few things which really actually releases the chemicals in the brain whether you win or whether you lose that actually causes Addiction in the same way way that addictions to chemical substances take place if you look at number 23 28 recovery from any addiction is Frau with the possibility of relapse the delusion of being able to gamble socially and in a controlled manner May uh May recur along with this come all the negative character features lying cheating manipulating Etc while certainly destructive relapse should not result in despair on the part of the Gambler and family unfortunately it may take more than one relapse to finally realize that he has no control over gambling that he must distance himself from anything Elita gambling one gambling with years of recovery said that he doesn't join the family in playing Monopoly I must stay away from handling Dice and we saw that explicit in the gamorra this kind of awareness of the Insidious seductiveness of gambling is essential to prevent relapse and then in 29 he says there is serious evidence that some people have a genetic propensity towards addiction there is a physical element to gambling for The Gambler becomes addicted to the pleasant sensation of endorphins released by gambling activity winning or losing and one of the main psychological characteristics of the addict is low self-esteem the promise of winning at gambling feeds upon and environmental factors exposure to involvement with gambling addiction can lead to potential Gambler to become an action one and actually with young people this is an even bigger problem than drug abuse for a few reasons which I brought you down at the bottom of the page number one I think teenagers do understand on a certain level why add ition to drugs could be deeply destructive to them and to their families but they don't necessarily understand what the problem is with sports betting why why why why is that an issue we're just having fun uh and they don't see it's much harder to communicate that somehow you've got yourself into a mindset where everything has to be monetized gamiz or whatever it's called gamification of everything also they see their parents doing it which is they don't see their parents taking hard drugs on the H but they do see their parents you know putting money on whether it's the Super Bowl or whatever it is and I'm not saying all gambling is the same as all other gambling but this is modeled as Behavior around them and they need Thrills it's not good enough to now see who wins you have to bet by the way sports betting is very very sophisticated they're not just betting on who wins and who loses dep betting on how many hits will it take before the guy gets out and and how many compared to how he used to take and the people going to come from the back you you can monetize almost every single angle of the the game and people and of course people especially you know yish aop think they've worked out all all the algorithms they've worked it out I've studied all the stats and I've looked at all the history and I've studied the players etc etc and of course all around them everything all around them is saying do it again do it more do it more you drive around see the you know the lottery signs drive around America and you see the numbers flashed up $600 million $700 million who doesn't want to stop the car and buy a lottery ticket if they could win $700 million even though as this famous quote that the lottery is a tax on people who can't do meth yeah you're you're not you're not going to win and by the way actually this is the PE people don't realize like a one in five million chance it's not going to happen people oh yeah you could you know someone's got to win there's more chance of you being hit by an asteroid that falls down from out of space as you walk out of the house to get in the car than than than being than being than winning the lottery so yeah people I don't know it could happen happen etc etc um I found you a couple of fascinating sources and then we'll look at some final issues look at number 30 31 and 32 what does the gor say about addiction generally so this is fascinating ra said to his son number 30 Tish summer don't drink these chemicals don't drink these chemicals why what was his problem drinking these chemicals so Rashi don't get yourself used to drinking these chemicals these drugs you'll become fixed on them okay V you'll have a pattern of behavior which is fixed and you'll be constantly needing them and you'll end up spending all your money on them could be alcohol it could be drugs meaning you'll become and the r the rashbam says what what about medical applications what about medical marijuana so the rashbam argues here number 32 so he quotes Rashi don't take these drugs he quotes first of all rash don't drink these drugs these chemicals you will become fixed on them said you have a fixed pattern he says and even if you say well I'm only doing it for a medical reason this should the last option he says even for a medical option if there's a danger of it becoming an addictive behavior and medications can become addictive we've seen this in America there are entire addictions to different uh medications the more F right oh we'll get to smoking when we get to smoking okay we'll have don't you worry we'll talk about smoking okay just finally some issues so Lisa can you a l ticket can you not buy a l ticket says no says no look at top of page eight he says I've been asked shil Are you allowed to buy a lottery ticket and of course after 20 pages of analysis he says my conclusion is okay if you're or you're from Al the sport sports betting is even worse than this Li of all different kinds because then you're encouraging people to play on shabas and you're encouraging shabas breach by putting money into sports which are played on shabas over which is very interesting is that your responsibility as to making people play on shabas if you're paying money for the sports he says it's not Li because they do it without you but it is mess you are contributing to people who were doing something which is basically prohibited for shabas reasons and then he says um the and in case you think you've got off scotf free even as shouldn't do it either for sure no he doesn't really think you're allowed to be ashkanazi at all is the truth really if you live if you live in a sparity country like Israel you should really Bey anyway if you listen to me you'll be okay he says now fine um I brought you a long analysis in number 34 by Ritz raitz says that you actually are yes sir no no he's talking about everything he's talking about everything just one second just one lottery ticket right you know please God I want to win the lottery they'll they meet me halfway and buy a ticket by the way there was a very interesting story of the MMA which may be a bit apocryphal but it was brought down as a story the MMA says there was there were two men in his community R was living in um dvinsk in the 1920s says there were two men in his community one was an honest man okay who you know made a small amount of money business and the other man was a a GF but he was a gan who was a schlamazel okay and he was a very unsuccessful GH so what happened was uh these two men bought a lottery ticket the man who was the honest man and the man who was ganf but the ganf then realized that he never wins anything because he's a schlamazel so he switched the tickets and he G he put in the House of the honest man his ticket and he took the ticket from the honest man and you know how this is going to end the honest man's ticket lost and now that's the one the ganof is holding okay and the g of ticket had the winning numbers so he wasn't just a schlamazel but he was a hpan because then again he goes to Bon to try and get the other ticket back to say that that's really my ticket and there was no Kenyan I only triy to steal it and that doesn't really work etc etc and the the M had to decide whether the ganf was entitled to the money or not that he just stole the other guy's ticket okay that's not for now you can you can you know ra J David blle has an analysis of that Hally where he actually concludes that the G of probably could get the ticket back in theory but in practice not anyway R spits says uh don't worry if you're ashkanazi you can buy a lottery ticket also raash St says the same thing and the reason he gives this as follows two main reasons number one buying a lottery ticket is very different from gambling uh on a uh on a game because you're actually buying an asset you are you own something you're not just betting you own something it's an investment you paid $1 for this piece of paper which may be worth tomorrow morning nothing or it may be worth a million dollars that's called making an investment that's not called betting and therefore you're allowed to do that and he says even more so when it comes to the National Lottery it's not like you're taking their money against their will they want to pay you the prize money they're desperate to pay you the prize money because then more people will buy the lottery next time and they and and they're doing it for Stucker and they're doing it for good causes and he says and then therefore what what how are these things even related you're definitely allowed to buy a lot secet and again ra MOS St who is who is not really known as one of the great MIM in h he pans on the top of page nine that your an ashkanazi is allowed to buy a loger ticket and that almost like as a response to raia he says and you know something even Asar is allowed to buy one as well okay B ashaz in b far him okay another issue when it comes to Saka which I think is very important and the gamor and I brought down 36 what if you make one of these pledges for a which is technically as it's a it's a promise you never really had in mind that you going to give so it's not binding says no when it comes to St somebody says no if I do that I'm never do that if I do that I'm going to give a million dollars to stalker which of course he never intended to do the and then he does it we can take him to Bon why why is it okay because don't forget on a Torah level this was always a binding promise it's on a rabic level that we invalidated it as a so when it comes to stalker it's not like you can steal money and give it to stalker that's not what he's saying he's saying that for in order to to increase the amount of money that's going to stalkers kazal never invalidated that particular transaction when it comes to stalker so as is allowed which is another reason why for the lottery that's not a reason to prohibit it because as I say it's really a stalker that they're doing uh in terms of risky Investments that's a good question at what point does your investment become basically a gamble uh I brought you some good investment advice uh which you know you can take it or leave it but you heard it here number 37 the gor says you should always split your money into three says the you should in invest a third of your money in real estate you should invest a third of your money in some kind of business that's actually yielding uh money that way and you should have a third of your income liquid that you can get your hands on at any point if you do that says the gumar that's called you know rabic investment advice from I'll do it and see how it works uh everyone has a something that they look back and they say oh if only I hadn't uh thrown away those things or if I bought a property then Etc everyone's clever afterwards so you'll see how that works but certainly when it comes to extremely risky uh Investments then there comes a point where it might even be uh prohibited but it's once you're buying a stock on the market R Lenin p r so leic pasin said it's that's not called gambling that's called investing and I brought you finally two sources you can read them on your own about playing drel I find maybe I'm finding it hard to let go of Hanukah but like the last gasp of Kaneka I promise you nothing more um that both the AR and the mishura come out absolutely negatively you cannot play drel on Kaneka uh and even though the you know you've got all the giml is Gans and a is help and you know shtim and all that kind of stuff says no no more no more Dr will do something more useful instead sing some rousing songs and get yourself in the mood in Shir Mr next week we'll move on to other things I'm going to finish now so RAB go can can start on time but thank you very much and hopefully we'll carry on next week