Harmful & Harmless Betting & Gambling for the devotees!
A Student devotee (Name hidden) asked like this:
“Hare Krishna! Please accept my most humble obeisances! Is placing healthy bets allowed in kc? I have placed a bet with my friend that if I get 95 %(2% higher than my previous percent) in final exams I will give everyone in our class 2 chocolates and she too has told that she gets 92% she will give 3 chocolates to everyone in our class. So, is it ok to place bets like this or I should stop doing this?”
REPLY:
Ha Ha…These are all just gifts that are harmless.
Such plays are natural during student age.
So, you can go ahead with these plays if they make you happy.
(5 SIMPLE TIPS TO AVOID GAMBLING AS A REGULATIVE PRINCIPLE FOR KRISHNA DEVOTEES! READ HERE!)
What you are doing is not betting, but just gifting.
Let us read about the Harmful & Harmless Betting & Gambling for the devotees!
Harmful & Harmless Betting & Gambling for the devotees!
The general Karma rule is that one should earn as compensation by working in an ethical way.
Any money that we earn without doing anything is the hugely karmic money as it will involve the money of others also.
Betting means, the Play of pledging some cash or kind by every player in the game and the collected money is given to a single person who wins the game among the two or among a group of people.
Here, the cash or kind pleadged by all the players go to a single player who wins the game, but without performing any work.
So, this is a gambling type of game.
So, such betting is prohibitted.
(Is it gambling to involve in Politics and IAS for devotees? READ HERE!)
For example, huge amount of betting is done on who will win the Cricket match in a particular event. The participating party whose prediction happened to be correct is given Prize money.
Here too the money of another or other persons go to a single person without performing any work.
There are betting events like horse races, bull races, cock races, etc. The persons do not perform any work, but just engage their horses, bulls, cocks, etc to run and win.
Playing dice with betting is followed by some people. The whole Mahabharatha revolves around the game of betting in dice game. Here too, no work is done. It is just a luck based play. This game also takes the cash or kind of others.
Lottery is also a form of gambling as it involves no work, but invest just a small money to buy lottery ticket. The winner gets the money of lakhs of participants, ie, those who bought the lottery tickets.
Though Long term investments in the Share market is not a Gambling activity directly, but just sharing/investing in the business of others, daily trading is discouraged because it consumes our whole attention and the time of the devotees.
However, Long term investments in shares and mutual funds that do not consume our quality time need not be prohibitted. Any long term investment is permissible, because we are investing in a business and sharing their profits or losses. One should be prepared to face losses also and should not lament for it.
(Is writing entrance exams a gambling as majority fail in the exam? READ HERE!)
However, investing all our earnings in shares or mutual funds is not wise and good as you may face a situation to lose all the resources to live and the whole life may be affected. So, as recommended by the experts, a very small percentage of our earning may be invested for long term in shares and mutual funds by being prepared to get loss or gain.
Bank deposits are allowed as the banks give loans and share their profits with us in the form of a fixed interest.
Investing your hard earned money in Gold is also allowed but safeguarding it may be risky. If you have wallets in your bank, you can keep them there.
The Conditions to be called as harmful gambling are:
(i) It should not cause loss for others;
(ii) It should not consume too much of our quality time that can be used for useful works and devotional practices.
In your case, you are not causing loss to any other’s money. You just give gifts to the students if you score high. So, you need not worry for that.
However, instead of gifting Chocolates that may contain coffeine, gift them fruits or dates fruit or milk products, cakes bought from the ISKCON temples, or prepared at home. Or, gift them the chocolates that do not contain Cocoa.
Hope you are clear about Harmful & Harmless Betting & Gambling for the devotees!
Are Long term investments in Shares & Mutual funds by devotees allowed? READ HERE!)