Is this gambling?

[MikeVic]

Yeah, I agree that I don't consider it gambling, I just mean that you COULD make a case for it as gambling I think, and that's just because money is involved... trivia isn't gambling normally. My "knowledge" on this comes from The Simpsons, when Flanders' house was destroyed and he says he doesn't have insurance since it's a form of gambling.

But then again, I don't see how this could be gambling and Bingo isn't, but Bingo is often run in churches, no? As you can probably tell, I don't give much thought as to what is and isn't gambling since I don't really care.

[Radii]

hah, interesting. I was quoting m-w.com.

[Shkspr]

Originally Posted by Surtt

Isn't pride a sin too?

Is it unseemly?

[MJ4H]

I don't think betting on winning a race with someone is gambling, personally.

And I don't think pride is a sin, but excessive pride is.

[Surtt]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

I don't think betting on winning a race with someone is gambling, personally.

And I don't think pride is a sin, but excessive pride is.

I was joking.
Need to remember the

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Depends on your dictionary, I guess:

gam⋅ble

  /ˈgæmbəl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [gam-buhl] Show IPA verb, -bled, -bling, noun Use gambling in a Sentence

See web results for gambling

See images of gambling

–verb (used without object)
http://dictionary.reference.com/brow...?db=dictionary

Originally Posted by Radii

hah, interesting. I was quoting m-w.com.

Yeah, I looked through about a dozen dictionaries and there were multiple definitions for gambling.

[Rizon]

We found 30 dictionaries with English definitions that include the word gambling:
Click on the first link on a line below to go directly to a page where "gambling" is defined.

General (20 matching dictionaries)
1. gambling: Encarta® World English Dictionary, North American Edition [home, info]
2. gambling: Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary, 11th Edition [home, info]
3. gambling: Cambridge International Dictionary of English [home, info]
4. Gambling: Wiktionary [home, info]
5. gambling: Dictionary.com [home, info]
6. gambling: UltraLingua English Dictionary [home, info]
7. gambling: Cambridge Dictionary of American English [home, info]
8. Gambling: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia [home, info]
9. Gambling: Online Plain Text English Dictionary [home, info]
10. gambling: Rhymezone [home, info]
11. Gambling: AllWords.com Multi-Lingual Dictionary [home, info]
12. gambling: Webster's 1828 Dictionary [home, info]
13. gambling: Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition [home, info]
14. Gambling: Encarta® Online Encyclopedia, North American Edition [home, info]
15. gambling: Free Dictionary [home, info]
16. gambling: Mnemonic Dictionary [home, info]
17. gambling: WordNet 1.7 Vocabulary Helper [home, info]
18. gambling: LookWAYup Translating Dictionary/Thesaurus [home, info]
19. gambling: Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition (Encyclopedia.com) [home, info]
20. gambling: Dictionary/thesaurus [home, info]

Business (2 matching dictionaries)
21. gambling: Legal dictionary [home, info]
22. gambling: BusinessDictionary.com [home, info]

Computing (1 matching dictionary)
23. gambling: Encyclopedia [home, info]

Medicine (4 matching dictionaries)
24. gambling: Dorland's Illustrated Medical Dictionary [home, info]
25. Gambling: Medical Dictionary [home, info]
26. gambling: online medical dictionary [home, info]
27. gambling: Medical dictionary [home, info]

Miscellaneous (1 matching dictionary)
28. Gambling: Brilliant Dream Dictionary [home, info]

Religion (1 matching dictionary)
29. Gambling: Catholic Encyclopedia [home, info]

Science (1 matching dictionary)
30. Gambling: Biological Sciences Dictionary [home, info]

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

I don't think betting on winning a race with someone is gambling, personally.

And I don't think pride is a sin, but excessive pride is.

How about betting car titles in a car race?

[SteveMax58]

Originally Posted by Radii

I dunno, the question was do I think its gambling. Gambling doesn't carry a negative connotation for me in any way. You're wagering $5 for a chance to win much more if you win a game. That's gambling to me. But there is no reason that should be a bad thing.

+1

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by jbergey22

How about betting car titles in a car race?

Which factors do you think would be different in the first race example and yours? (honest question)

[jbergey22]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Which factors do you think would be different in the first race example and yours? (honest question)

In some defintions under the gambling term. They use property exchange in the definition.

In my opinion there is no right or wrong to the answer to this question.

Walking on a icy sidewalk could be considered gambling.

The debate has shifted now to whether or not the church would approve of this type of activity.

[Lathum]

I say not gambling for 2 reasons I haven't seen yet.

1. Legally it isn't gambling, Logan touched on this a bit but if the law considered it gambling the bar wouldn't be allowed to do it.

2. I am assuming the house takes no cut. If all the money is being exchanged between players than it is a contest. In theory the same 100 people that play this every week could pass around the same $5 per person forever and keep playing.

[MJ4H]

Oh, ok. I haven't seen any of those definitions. They are pretty much the same example in my book.

[wade moore]

If you asked if it was illegal, I might have a different opinion.

I took it to be a broader question of is it "gambling". To me it clearly is. You're playing a game for money, that's gambling imo.

[lcjjdnh]

Originally Posted by panerd

It's sad that we have allowed lawmakers and fundamentalists to make this an issue anyways. So a lottery, horse racing, bingo, etc are prefectly fine but I am supposed to feel like I am not a productive member of society if I want to lay 50 bucks on tonight's Texas-Alabama game while not living in the state of Nevada? Who cares? The people who enjoy it should hang out with people who enjoy it and the people who don't shouldn't.

Unrelated to the topic at hand, but this reminded me of a quote from Jimmy Breslin's the Good Rat

I do know that illegal gambling, which once was a glorius fountain of cash for the outfit, now is a government-owned lottery machine that buzzes in every newsstand and deli in the city. Years ago the state looked upon gambling as a low vice, a depravity; and those who profited from it were no better than cheap pimps and deserved years behind bars. THat opinion held right up until the government took it over, at which it becaome a civic virtue to lose the rent and all other money you didn't have on rigged games of chance.

[MIJB#19]

Define gambling.

Putting money on the Colts to beat the Raiders isn't exactly some random luck event. Heck, the odds to win the bet are better than your odds to finish college with the degree you were hoping to end up with.

However, putting money on the Raiders to beat the Colts, that really just means you're desperate and hoping to hit the jackpot.



In this case at hand, it's even more of a grey area. It's definately a gambling kind of situation if you're competing for the first time, because you have no idea what the competition is like, neither the format nor the opponents. But after three or four appearances, having found out what type of questions are asked, noticing the same bunch of people showing up, with the same couple of people winning it all and finding out your own ranking is always in the middle of the pack, you ended up having a pretty good idea on how well you will do and whether you'll be throwing money away or will be contending for the grand prize.


But gambling laws aren't taking into account whether you have favorable odds. They're just about money in, money out and some subjective feel for whatever is and what isn't a lop-sided event.

If you want to convince the people to join, try to find out whether they are sports fans as basically every sports event has a similar format and there's harldy anybody claiming the Indianapolis Colts are gambling addicts because they keep coming back every season.

[Lathum]

You should ask the guy if his church or any affiliates have ever have a carnival or bingo for fundraising.

[AENeuman]

If it is then Final Jeopardy would be considered gambling too.

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by AENeuman

If it is then Final Jeopardy would be considered gambling too.

I believe that in Final Jeopardy, you're officially just dealing with points, and they don't become dollars until you win.

EDIT: But I could be thinking of another show.

[Karlifornia]

I say it's definitely gambling, but does that bother you? I, too, never understood the negative connotations associated with "gambling" and "gamblers" or "degenerate gamblers".

Gambling can be fun. I rarely do it, but that's because I usually never have any money anyways.

[CraigSca]

Really, it doesn't matter whether we define it as gambling (I would consider it gambling, but not "bad" gambling, whatever that is) or whether the law says it's okay or not. Ultimately it's up to the guy you're inviting and whether putting $5 into a trivia contest is considered gambling by his religion's definition. There's no harm in asking him to come along.

[CraigSca]

Personally, my definition of gambling comes from what the church/mosque/synagogue is trying to prevent - e.g. an addiction where that person could become a slave to the game/event resulting in some pretty awful circumstances.

For instance, could going to the casino become an addiction and the guy loses his mortgage? Absolutely. Could the guy start betting football games and find himself losing his shorts? Yes. Could the guy become addicted to $5 trivia and find he can't afford the next round of appetizers? Maybe, but doubtful.

To me, while it is gambling, it's harmless.

[Rizon]

Anyone willing to place bets on whether or not this dude ends up being part of the Trivia Game?

[MikeVic]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

Personally, my definition of gambling comes from what the church/mosque/synagogue is trying to prevent - e.g. an addiction where that person could become a slave to the game/event resulting in some pretty awful circumstances.

For instance, could going to the casino become an addiction and the guy loses his mortgage? Absolutely. Could the guy start betting football games and find himself losing his shorts? Yes. Could the guy become addicted to $5 trivia and find he can't afford the next round of appetizers? Maybe, but doubtful.

To me, while it is gambling, it's harmless.

What about those $10,000 one-question trivia games? Isn't that what Arenas was playing in the locker room?

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by wade moore

To me this is pretty clearly gambling, not sure how there's any way around that.

Whereas to me this is only gambling in the most anally technical sense. Marathon runners pay entry fees. Are they gambling?

[bhlloy]

Originally Posted by cthomer5000

Whereas to me this is only gambling in the most anally technical sense. Marathon runners pay entry fees. Are they gambling?

+1. Is it gambling to pay to enter a sports team in a contest with a prize at the end? Is the MLB a gambling organization because the team gets a cash bonus for winning the World Series and players get a cut of the prize money?

To me this is a contest where you are paying an entry fee to compete, the contest is (for the most part) based on skill and there is a prize at the end.

[Logan]

Unrelated...am I the only one who sees the text size in this thread smaller than every other thread?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Logan

Unrelated...am I the only one who sees the text size in this thread smaller than every other thread?

no, I noticed it also. We should all throw in $5 and whoever figures out why first wins.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Logan

Unrelated...am I the only one who sees the text size in this thread smaller than every other thread?

I thought it looked weird. Looks like a different font than the text in other threads.

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Lathum

no, I noticed it also. We should all throw in $5 and whoever figures out why first wins.

Skydog is gonna be a rich man.

[Groundhog]

I play trivia every week on Wednesday nights. We don't have to pay a cent to enter, and the winning 3 teams all get cash prizes (1st place gets $30, and considering we usually have 6 or 7 people on our team, that's not much!). I guess technically that's gambling too, but none of us would think of it that way.

[RainMaker]

To get even more analytical, doesn't gambling require losing something of value to you? If I bet a beer on a football game, is it the same as if I bet my weekly paycheck on it? To truly be gambling, don't you need to have something at stake that matters to you? At $5, the money would seem to be an afterthought. Therefore, on the grounds of religion, I don't think it would be something seen as a sin.

[boberot]

To get less analytical, the consideration for me begins and ends with the question "Could this be considered gambling?"

I think the answer to that is clearly "yes."

That being said, I think any time you are staking something of value on an outcome, it is gambling / betting / wagering / etc.

Every year when I fill out paperwork for health insurance / life insurance, I feel like it's the biggest gamble I'll do all year.

[MikeVic]

Is the font in this thread a bit off for anyone else?

[Lathum]

So is participating in a PGA event gambling? As far as I know the players supply their own caddies, travel, etc... so there is certainly an investment on their part with no guarantee for a positive return.

[Rizon]

Originally Posted by MikeVic

Is the font in this thread a bit off for anyone else?

Sweet, I thought it was my excessive masturbation.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Passacaglia

I think a key element of gambling must be that you stand to lose something if you don't win.

Like an arm?

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Samdari

Games of chance are considered gambling, games of skill not so.

Hence heated debates about poker, since there are elements of both.

So if I play pool and bet someone I will beat them, that's not gambling?

[RainMaker]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

So if I play pool and bet someone I will beat them, that's not gambling?

That's the case that a lot of poker sites such as Full Tilt are making to skirt laws.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

So if I play pool and bet someone I will beat them, that's not gambling?

Not if you are the better player. They may beat you occasionally but in the long run if you are more skilled you can't lose.

That's the reason why the average Joe can't fathom poker is a skill game. They can only look at on a hand by hand or session by session basis as opposed to how you have to look at the long term results. I can sit down and win money from Phil Ivey in a single session, maybe even in 10 or 100 sessions, but long term I have no chance to finish ahead of him.

[DanGarion]

Originally Posted by Radii

I dunno, the question was do I think its gambling. Gambling doesn't carry a negative connotation for me in any way. You're wagering $5 for a chance to win much more if you win a game. That's gambling to me. But there is no reason that should be a bad thing.

This reminds me of a disagreement I had on blog with a "CPA". Tax Tips: Do I have to report my gambling income?

[MJ4H]

Originally Posted by DanGarion

So if I play pool and bet someone I will beat them, that's not gambling?

Nah. There is a difference between betting and gambling.

[weegeebored]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Depends on your dictionary, I guess:

gam⋅ble

It's only gambling if you don't consider a trivia game a test of skill, and that you do consider the random assignment of questions as "chance".

And if someone wants to argue "could" it be considered gambling then I would just reply so is driving your car as you gamble with your life on the roads. How ridiculously far do you want to take the definition of gambling?

[Passacaglia]

Originally Posted by MJ4H

Nah. There is a difference between betting and gambling.

Maybe this is some of the hangup. What's the difference?

[Celeval]

Not gambling.