What Is The Difference Between Lottery And Gambling?
Gambling is a game of luck and uncertainty, which involves placing a bet, with all the other players agreeing to put their possessions at stake, in exchange for a chance to win the booty. The players can put up anything valuable as stake, such as cash, agricultural lands, or any precious gems that they may have at the moment. Ultimately, the winner sweeps the booty that was put at stake by the rest of the players, without compensating them for what they lost.
There are several different forms of gambling, like horse racing, casino, playing cards, or lottery. Lottery is one of the most popular subset of gambling, wherein, pre-decided prizes and gifts are given to the winners. Lottery is commonly played by the middle-income strata of the society, who dream to win a big lottery one day and therefore, keep investing in lottery tickets again and again.
Although gambling is highly popular in several parts of the world, yet, it is strictly forbidden in the Islamic nations because Islam considers gambling to be an absolutely unethical practice, something which is equivalent to committing a big sin, and must therefore be avoided.
In fact, many top nations in the world have legalized lottery and have even opened Government-run state-lotteries to amass the public money and utilize it for the common benefit of the public. For instance, in countries like Spain, France, Canada, Belgium, U.K, several states in U.S (including Virginia, Maryland, Georgia, etc), there are several licensed casinos operating, because in these countries, lotteries are a popular form of entertainment and the social stigma associated with it is minimal. Therefore, gambling is considered not like a vice, but as a fun-filled game in these countries. And the proceedings form the lotteries and gambling is used for building public amenities.
Many people, however, prefer to ignore lotteries because they are of the opinion that lotteries are nothing but “taxes levied on stupidity”. They feel so because the chances to win the lottery is very low when compared to the other forms of gambling and inspite of knowing this fact, uncountable people still prefer to buy a lottery ticket and try their luck. Hardly do they know the fact that their money fills up the government’s public utility funds, just as the taxes paid by us fill in the government’s treasuries, and therefore, they prefer to refer to lotteries as ‘tax on stupidity’.
It has been reported from many parts of the world that people are taking up gambling not as a means of entertainment, but as a serious way of generating income for themselves. This obsession to gamble has taken a far more ugly shape and many individuals are reported to be suffering from compulsive gambling, which is a psychological disorder, wherein the patient cannot overcome the desire to continue gambling, although he may have incurred huge loss because of it.
Lottery or gambling as such is not a bad means of entertainment. It is just that gambling using stakes is objectionable because by doing so, your hard earned money is at stake. Unless you are rich enough and loss of a few thousand dollars is not a very big affair for you, you must not go ahead with gambling any longer. Instead of stakes, you can use gifts to make your gambling experience even more enjoyable.
Graham McKenzie is the content coordinator for a South African UK Lottery website, where you can buy tickets to play the UK lottery and participate in the Euro millions draw.
