Poker - Is It a Sin?

Forums: Spirituality And Religion, Poker, Sin
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Was having a conversation with a good friend last night and the subject of poker-playing came up. Her position is that poker is gambling, therefore it is a sin. I asked her to define gambling. She said that her definition is whatever Merriam Webster says.

M/W:

1 a : to play a game for money or property b : to bet on an uncertain outcome
2 : to stake something on a contingency : take a chance

So I asked her if professional sports was gambling? The stock market? And so on...

She did not want to talk about it anymore, which really means that she had not looked at it from that perspective and now must re-evaluate her position. OK - I understand.

So what does everyone think: Is playing poker a sin?

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[+3] - gustavratzenhofer - 01/12/2007Bad poker playing is a sin. If you play it well it is an investment.

Bad poker playing is a sin.

If you play it well it is an investment.

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no worse than sex with an underaged farm animal.... right Gus?

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gustavratzenhofer wrote:

Bad poker playing is a sin.

If you play it well it is an investment.

Bingo . . .

If you know the odds, and therefore make intelligent decisions about when to hold 'em, and when to fold your hand, gambling ceases to be a very accurate definition. My ideal poker game is to play with four or five clowns who don't know the odds, and who are therefore gambling while i play the investment odds.

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It is a sin, it's a game of the Devil that does nothing but create animosity between people and make them forget their duties towards their Creator.

As indicated in the Qur'an-

Satan wants to stir up enmity and hatred between you by means of wine and gambling, and to debar you from remembrance of Allah and from prayer. Will you not then give them up?(Surat al-Ma´ida, 91)

Now, will you not give them up?

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Personally, i don't take strong drink. I've only seen animosity once in a poker game, when some clown tried to look at my hand after he had folded and i took the pot. I didn't let him, and the other players told him he was out of line. We never invited him to our poker games again. That is the only time, in my entire life, that i've seen animosity at a poker game.

I guess Muslims must be sore losers who have anger control issues.

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Setanta wrote:

Personally, i don't take strong drink. I've only seen animosity once in a poker game, when some clown tried to look at my hand after he had folded and i took the pot. I didn't let him, and the other players told him he was out of line. We never invited him to our poker games again. That is the only time, in my entire life, that i've seen animosity at a poker game.

I guess Muslims must be sore losers who have anger control issues.

Mock and provoke all you want, we'll see who are the real losers when it finally comes time.

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Just can't wait for that end of the world ****, can ya?

I see that in the case of one particular Muslim, animosity and hatred are the governing emotions.

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Raul-7 wrote:

Setanta wrote:
Personally, i don't take strong drink. I've only seen animosity once in a poker game, when some clown tried to look at my hand after he had folded and i took the pot. I didn't let him, and the other players told him he was out of line. We never invited him to our poker games again. That is the only time, in my entire life, that i've seen animosity at a poker game.

I guess Muslims must be sore losers who have anger control issues.

Mock and provoke all you want, we'll see who are the real losers when it finally comes time.

So do you think in Paradise that God Almighty will put up with a bunch of ass holes of ANY faith, taking pleasure and doing the Superior Dance over the fact that they were right and others were wrong? Sounds like an unforgiving God, the anti-God. If you worship that God aren't you just a Satanist? Because Satan is the God of no forgiveness, of satisfaction over the fall of others, smugness and pride.

May I fall back a few years rhetoric wise and say Check yourself before you wreck yourself?

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Uh oh. I think this is bad for Raul-7.

He is betting his immortal soul that he is right. Wow. You talk about going all in!!

But gambling his soul can't be righteous, so he is screwed.

Joe(big balls boy)Nation

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Joe Nation wrote:

Uh oh. I think this is bad for Raul-7.

He is betting his immortal soul that he is right. Wow. You talk about going all in!!

But gambling his soul can't be righteous, so he is screwed.

Joe(big balls boy)Nation

and by 72 women who have never done it before.... eternal amateur night. Yuck.

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Who decided that gambling is a sin? The God of the Bible seems to have approved of casting lots and did not give Moses any laws commandments about gambling, although I don't think poker had been invented at that point. If gambling is sinful, why do Catholic churches have bingo nights?

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"Sin" is a subjective, highly relative concept - by and large, one's determination of what is sin amounts to disapproval of practice in which that one would prefer others not engage.

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Poker is as much a game of skill as it is of chance. Of course, the way many people play the game they don't really have a very good chance of winning. Last year I got into Texas Holdem, and ran $1000 (play money) up to $105,000 over a period of about six months. I began to think I had the game figured out, and I was winning much more often than losing.

Then came my downfall. One old boy took me for $35,000 in a single session. Whoops! After that I lost steadily until my initial stake was all I had left. It was fun, and carried a number of wonderful lessons. I hope I learned those lessons well, but who knows we humans seem to have a self-destructive side.

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Raul-7... quote
It is a sin, it's a game of the Devil that does nothing but create animosity between people and make them forget their duties towards their Creator. end of quote.

We all know how the English languish can be distorted... perhaps Raul meant "poke her", I could agree with him then, if you didn't know why you were poking her, or how to poke her... more so if she didn't feel like being poked, but of course it really all depends with what you were poking her with... this is all getting very complicated... think I need a drink.

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Asherman, back in my uniform-wearing days, I once ran $100 up to damned near $20 Grand in about 4 hours of poker playing. Unfortunately, I played poker for about 4½ hours Sad

Oh, well. I was stationed to a really big boat at the time, galley food was better than just tolerable, and I had plenty of freinds so it was no problem to borrow enough money to keep me in cigarettes, goodies and hygeine kit 'till payday rolled around a couple weeks later Laughing

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anton bonnier wrote:

Raul-7... quote
It is a sin, it's a game of the Devil that does nothing but create animosity between people and make them forget their duties towards their Creator. end of quote.

We all know how the English languish can be distorted... perhaps Raul meant "poke her", I could agree with him then, if you didn't know why you were poking her, or how to poke her... more so if she didn't feel like being poked, but of course it really all depends with what you were poking her with... this is all getting very complicated... think I need a drink.

Yes, very funny.

Read the verse I posted in bold, did you not see the word 'gambling' (ie. game of chance)?

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I see nothing wrong in a friendly game of poker. It is entertainment, and like any kind of entertainment, it may cost some money.
The problem is when the poker playing becomes excessive, and money needed for other things are pissed away at the poker table.

I think that if one decides what he wants to spend for an evening's entertainment, and sticks to it, there is no problem. IMO anything taken to excess, is wrong.

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Phoenix32890 wrote:

I see nothing wrong in a friendly game of poker. It is entertainment, and like any kind of entertainment, it may cost some money.
The problem is when the poker playing becomes excessive, and money needed for other things are pissed away at the poker table.

I think that if one decides what he wants to spend for an evening's entertainment, and sticks to it, there is no problem. IMO anything taken to excess, is wrong.

Sinning isn't based on people's whims and desires, it's the dictated law from God. IMO's and IME's don't work with sinning.

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Raul-7 - I have no concept of a "God", nor any supposed laws that he/she has made. Therefore, your argument has absolutely no meaning for me.

If this is what you believe, fine. But I think that it is the height of impertinence and disrespect of others to overlay your feelings and beliefs on other people.

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Poker - Is It a Sin?

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