The Catholic View on Gambling

The purpose of the Centre is to facilitate the сpiritual, psychological and leadership development of youth, laity and religious. It has a spacious serene environment with a perpetual calm and fresh surrounding. We offer professional high quality services with affordable rates.  In this short article, we hope to shed some light in what way the Catholic Church sees gambling.

The Church's View

There are two major aspects to the consideration of gambling. The first is the theological or moral aspect. From this perspective, we need to consider whether gambling is immoral in itself, or whether it is morally neutral, but easily subject to circumstances which can effectively render it immoral. The second is the public policy and societal aspect.

In its moral aspect, although gambling usually has a bad meaning, yet we may apply to it what was said about betting. On certain conditions, and apart from excess or scandal, it is not sinful to stake money on the issue of a game of chance any more than it is sinful to insure one's property against risk.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 2413) briefly mentions that games of chance and wagers are not bad. It is the emotions that come from gambling that the church feels negatively about. Greed, coveting, selfishness, indulgence, power, worship of money, all of these things can control the mind and soul.

Are the Views Changing in General?

Society's view of gambling has also gone through an amazing metamorphosis during the last century. There was a time when society viewed gambling as a manifestation of the devil. Morally deemed a sin, it was also an illegal activity, serious enough to warrant time in prison. For many, the stance has remained largely the same. The Orthodox Church, for example, is opposed to gambling, including lotteries sponsored by governments. Church leaders have encouraged Church members to join with others in opposing the legalization and government sponsorship of any form of gambling.

Conservative thought typically is against government control or regulation of private enterprise, including gambling and lottery. On the other hand, conservatives may take a more moralistic view of gambling, saying that it should be banned because it is immoral or sinful. Liberal thought would want to regulate gambling and lotteries, tax them, or allow other government intervention. Liberals are less likely to be judgmental of individual gamblers.

Lottery is a leisure activity. Whether you or someone you know chooses to play lottery, it’s important to understand that gambling comes with potentially serious risks. Because the fact is most people lose when they play the lottery, play a casino game, or place a bet. That’s why you, your family, and your friends should know how to protect yourselves when it comes to problem gambling.

Fortunately, there are strategies that gamblers can use to help keep them safe from problem gambling:

• Have the right attitude – gamble for fun and entertainment.
• Set a limit on how much money and time you can afford to spend gambling.
• Don’t take your bank cards or credit cards with you when you gamble. Leave any extra cash at home.

Before increasing your deposit limits carefully consider if you can afford to do so. Never decide to increase your limit because you have lost money and think that you will win it back by gambling more. If you wish to increase a limit, request your bank to allow such action once 24 hours have passed – this will allow you to sleep on it.

As you see, the sole problem in preventing any gambling-related issue is to love the game, not the wins, and to set limits. After that, only sky is the limit to the fun that can be had. With that in mind, why not check out megamillions number generator and see how well you'd do in a game? The sky's the limit!