Christianity
The modern Christian religion doesn’t have a strong opposition against betting and gamblers. While the Bible hardly addresses the issue of gaming, we can still find scriptures on gambling. These scriptures can be called ambiguous and open to interpretation.
Although there is god hates sin bible verse, God doesn’t hate sinners.
In the times of early Christianity, casino games were strictly prohibited, although no one could explain why is gambling a sin.
The situation remained unchanged until Reformation. As centuries passed, the Roman-Catholic church became less radical and stopped to consider gambling a sin. Still, some categories of gamblers were castigated like before. For example, people prone to gambling addiction were not allowed to gamble. Also, the church condemned betting if it did harm to other people.
Protestantism doesn’t share Catholicism’s mild views on casinos. The Protestants believe gambling to be a heavy sin and stand for gambling bans and restrictions.
As for the Orthodox Church, it demonstrates strong condemnation towards gambling. It’s believed that gaming is closely related with greed, egocentrism, and other flaws and makes a person neglect their loved ones. At the same time, the Orthodox Church doesn’t provide any particular punishment for gamblers, except for clergymen.
The takeaway we can draw is this. Although the Bible contains god hates sin verse, Christians can gamble. However, they’ll have to redeem their sins.
Islam
Islam is known for its unapologetic attitude towards gambling. Being one of the youngest world religions, Islam consists of multiple currents, each defining sin differently.
For example, if you come to Turkey, you won’t find any casinos. However, this doesn’t stop the Turks from enjoying gambling abroad.
Although in Islam, gambling is considered haram (an act forbidden by Allah), the gambling Turks are not publicly condemned.
At the same time, playing slots or making sports bets are the hobbies that are not approved by the society.
In Iran, the situation with gambling is completely different. Local gamblers are publicly condemned and even prosecuted by law. In the remote regions of the country, gamblers risk being executed. We won’t exaggerate by saying that among the world religions, Islam has the least tolerance towards gambling. In Islamic countries, it’s commonly believed that gamblers are driven by sin.
Hinduism
Being one of the oldest world religions, Hinduism has a pretty moderate attitude towards gambling. Hinduism incorporates a variety of schools that interpret gambling in different ways. In other words, each country or region has its own rules based on its local traditions.
According to the Indian manuscripts, gamblers should be taxed. This means that the ancient thinkers proposed to regulate gambling instead of banning it.
At the same time, in Manusmriti, the ancient legal text, casino games are mentioned among four biggest sins.
Here is a curious fact. If a gambler wins, it’s considered to be a reward for his kind doings. In other words, people a good karma have more chances of hitting a winning streak. Gamblers with a bad karma are doomed to lose because god of gambler has turned his back on them.
Buddhism
While Buddhism doesn’t approve of gambling, it doesn’t prohibit it either. Shakyamuni Buddha neither encourages, not forbids betting. According to another interpretation, Buddha criticized gambling games because they may lead to disastrous losses and temptations. Anyway, in Buddhism, we find no gaming-related records that would resemble the Christian god hates sin verses.
Judaism
In the times of the ancient Judaism, a gambler risked losing his place in society or some of his rights. For example, it’s a known fact that gambling fans were not allowed to witness in court.
According to the Talmud, gambling is a sin, and rabbis agree with this statement.
Casino games is considered a useless and dangerous entertainment that may lead to financial problems and affects the gambler’s personality in a bad way. Gambling is definitely not approved.
At the same time, Judaism allows to raise money for synagogues by participating in special lotteries and making contributions with the so-called scripture checks. Daydale, a popular game among the Jews, is also allowed. In general, you can say that Judaism is pretty tolerant to gambling.
