Bet you don’t know rabbis’ thoughts on legalized gambling?
The hunt for sports gaming money is big. In 2021, according to STATISTA, sports gamblers spent $4.33 billion in the United States. That may be only a pittance of the In the U.S. in 2021, sports gamblers spent $4.33 billion in the United States, according to STATISTA. Thirty-six states allow legalized sports betting, including Ohio, which came on board Jan. 1. The Central Conference of American Rabbis passed a resolution in 1984 stating that the Jewish tradition looks with disfavor upon organized gambling activity as non-productive and threatening to the social fabric of society. However, the current Jewish disposition on sports gambling depends on your denomination and personal beliefs, and the modern interpretations vary. Conservative and Reform rabbis have differing views on whether or not gambling is allowed in their respective communities.
प्रकाशित : एक साल पहले द्वारा STEVE MARK में
The hunt for sports gaming money is big. In 2021, according to STATISTA, sports gamblers spent $4.33 billion in the United States. That may be only a pittance of the estimated $58 billion spent in the U.S. in overall gambling in 2021, according to Forbes, but it’s still a sizeable amount.
Thirty-six states allow legalized sports betting, including Ohio, which came on board Jan. 1.
As far back in 1984, the Central Conference of American Rabbis passed a resolution on gambling, stating, “The Jewish tradition looks with disfavor upon organized gambling activity as non-productive and threatening to the social fabric of society.”
My Jewish Learning, a resource for many rabbis and lay leaders, notes that “While there is no explicit Jewish prohibition on gambling, the rabbis of the Talmud did not have a positive view of the practice.
“Another opinion suggests that gambling is a form of thievery. Some authorities, like the late Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, have ruled that buying lottery tickets is a form of stealing.”
That said, the current Jewish disposition on sports gambling depends on your denomination and personal beliefs, and the modern interpretations vary.
“Gambling in general is not allowed,” Rabbi Howard Zack of Orthodox congregation Torat Emet in Bexley, a suburb of Columbus, told the Cleveland Jewish News. “From a halachic perspective, a Jewish perspective, there would be a narrow frame that gambling in general is not allowed. I would say a friendly game of poker where no one is gambling money would be OK. Gaming for entertainment, where money isn’t being passed, might be OK. Some opinions even say that it isn’t.
“The gambling part aside, the Talmud says very clearly that somebody who makes a living gambling is not OK to be a witness or somebody who should be trusted, because it’s not a proper way to gain profit. So, gambling for profit is something halachic Judaism would look at unfavorably. What some states are doing is very dangerous. People with addictive behavior can ruin families who get into too much debt. I’m not happy about the state of Ohio or any of the other states permitting sports gambling.”
For the record, Zack is a New England-bred Boston Red Sox fan. The “Curse of the Bambino,” which ended in 2004, was hard to bet against for a long time.
The views from Conservative and Reform rabbis start to meld into sometimes gray areas.
“People are going to do what they want to do no matter what a rabbi says,” Rabbi Jeremy Lipton of Beth El Congregation in Akron, a Conservative synagogue, told the CJN. “Anybody who looks at this from a traditional perspective will tell you that the rabbis didn’t look favorably upon gambling at all.
“One of the aspects is that it is considered stealing, and the other aspect is that it does not contribute to a healthy life. It’s a harder stretch to make an argument in this day and age that gambling is stealing, though the behavior that comes with habitual gambling creates a lot of pitfalls for people, so it’s something we don’t encourage anyone to do. From a Talmudic perspective, it is not prohibited, but not encouraged. So there’s a stigma that goes with it from a traditional Jewish perspective.”
Lipton, who grew up in Los Angeles, is primarily a Lakers fan, though, as he says, “I’ve got to give it to the Cavs now, though.”
Rabbi Allison Vann of Reform temple Suburban Temple-Kol Ami in Beachwood, takes a more forgiving – though, from a distance – outlook.
“What’s fascinating is that the ancient rabbi’s takes on gambling are usually negative, because there was a fear of the impact it might have on people’s lives and also the experience that you might be led to believe that you were buying something, when you really weren’t buying something,” Vann told the CJN. “Now that we’re in a different world, we know that when we gamble, we are not actually purchasing something, that you are taking a chance, so I’m not as adverse as the ancient rabbis were.
“I think it’s each person’s own choice, and games can be very fun. They have to have the appropriate place in our lives, and if that’s the case, people can play them. So, there’s a populist view in play. That’s what progressive and Reform Judaism is about. We look at questions of our time and we look at how our traditions help us about our current time. We continue to evolve. Legal sports betting has just started here.”
Vann has one caveat, and it is one that many rabbis agree on.
“We do some gaming for fundraising,” she said. “We are very clear about what we are asking for and what the expectations and boundaries are. That’s what’s fair.”
Vann calls herself “a little bit of a sports fan,” but “this year, the Browns have been hard to root for.”