Well certain methods of investing could be considered gambling, but buying mutual funds is doing something productive with your money. Just because something involves risk doesn't make it gambling.

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Scott Roper
Member, Redeemer Presbyterian Church (PCA): "A bunch of hippie Calvinists"
Winston-Salem, NC

The honest answer would be “yes, it is possible”. Coveting involves a desire for what belongs to someone else. E.g., it is not coveting to desire a new car. Coveting occurs when I desire my neighbor’s new car.

Gambling is not inherently covetous. When a person gambles they are not, by definition, desiring their neighbor’s goods. The money in a slot machine is no different from the car on the showroom floor. They are not necessarily out to steal what lawfully belongs to their neighbor.

The bolded and underlined sections in the WLC answer leaves much open for interpretation, esp. transposed from the 17th century. What is “inordinate prizing”? What is “wasteful gaming”? (Can I spend $50 on college football tickets? Can I buy season tickets for the local professional baseball team?) And I’m afraid the prooftexts do not help with the definition. They speak clearly to excess, as in the case of drunkenness, not to absolute abstinence.

Gambling appears to be the focus of a modern temperance movement among Christians.

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Tom Albrecht
Member, Covenant URCNA, New Holland, PA.

"I'm not a famous man. I'm just a simple country doctor with horse sense."

Isn't the whole point in gambling to desire to win money that isn't yours? Isn't that coveting?

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Rev. Andrew J. Barnes
Husband of Dena
Pastor of Tchula Presbyterian Church

This is just a question: Is the desire to win, whether there is money involved or not, considered to be covetous?

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Nate Wood
Student, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Clifton Baptist Church
Louisville, KY

I would think not. Since I assume by win you mean to win a game or competition. To win at those things is to win something that someone else does not already have. To win the 2008 NFL Super Bowl is to win something that no one else has. To covet is to want something that belongs to someone else that is not yours. At least that is what it seems to be.

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Rev. Andrew J. Barnes
Husband of Dena
Pastor of Tchula Presbyterian Church

Not if I understand how the Bible uses the word. Otherwise you can substitute anything in place of the word "money" and it automatically becomes coveting. The car in the showroom is not mine, ergo, it is coveting to want that car.

At the base of the word seems to be the idea of desire. In the case of Exodus 20 it indicates a desire for something which cannot be lawfully gained. I must steal my neighbor’s goods or commit adultery with his wife in order to possess them.

But desire in and of itself is not a bad thing. The Greek word translated "covet" (epithumeo) is also used to express legitimate desire (1 Tim. 3:1). I would agree that if the desire overtakes a person to the point where they lose all self-control, then it is sinful, just as if the desire for drink causes them to become drunk.

Not all gamblers desire riches, just as not all those who use alcohol desire to be drunk.

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Tom Albrecht
Member, Covenant URCNA, New Holland, PA.

"I'm not a famous man. I'm just a simple country doctor with horse sense."

There are many people who would argue that spending money in an amusement arcade is just as siunful as gambling

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Jeffrey Wilson
Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church
London Baptist Confession of Faith 1689
Summerland, British Columbia, Canada

"Discrimination is just a choice based on knowledge and good reason" Farrell Griswold

And those people would be both silly and wrong.

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Kevin Rogers
Sovereign Community Church, PCA
Moncton NB

Maybe, or maybe they are just concerned about personal Holiness and being seperate from the worlds amusements...who knows maybe im jus' bein' silly

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Jeffrey Wilson
Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church
London Baptist Confession of Faith 1689
Summerland, British Columbia, Canada

"Discrimination is just a choice based on knowledge and good reason" Farrell Griswold

From Andrews post # 25I believe the underlined above statement is the core of the issue. Must we render an equivalent value in return for money earned?
If you believe so, gambling is a sinful act.

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Rock Hill, SC
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Charlotte

A very helpful, and well-balanced treatment of casting lots that I read recently is Hugh Martin's commentary on Jonah 1.7 (pp. 123-139 of his commentary).

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Andrew Myers
Husband of Jessica, Father of Jackson, Katie and Samuel
Member, Presbyterian Reformed Church of Northern Virginia
Warrenton, VA USA
Editor, The Matthew Poole Project

"Let your Morning Thoughts, and your last Evening Thoughts, be what shall become of you to all Eternity." -- Matthew Poole

It would seem nobody gambles under the impression that they're always going to lose 100% of their money 100% of the time, otherwise nobody would do it; there would be no allure. I simply don't think people would be willing to pay money just for the opportunity to lose it.

However, when it comes spending money at the arcade, the movies, or a sporting event, the person paying the money is paying to receive something.

And as was stated earlier, investments in the stock market are just that, they're investments; investments in companies. Such investments are in accordance with the sixth commandment in that we're helping our neighbor and hoping for him to prosper (see WLC). If the company is successful, there's a twofold blessing; our neighbor benefits and so do we. If he doesn't, we've still made an effort to help our fellow man/society, which is a good thing. Of course, I realize not everybody invests with this understanding; many people do approach investing like a gambler hoping to hit the big one, but one doesn't have to...

Just some further musings on the subject.

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Pastor Steve Bradley
Trinity Reformed Presbyterian Church (RPCNA)
www.trinityrpc.org
www.sermonaudio.com/trinityrpc
www.reformedvoice.com/trinityrpc
Riva, MD

However, isn't life as a hole zero sum. If I invest in Toyota, and they succeed, what happens? It means that the GM plant shuts down in Michigan where I live and thousands of people lose their jobs, take pay cuts, with the final result that we, as a state, have one of the highest unemployment rates in the United States...

Someone has to lose in reality, there are just lesser or greater degrees of social stigma attached.

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Will Uminn
Bethel Baptist
Kalamazoo, MI

This thread seems to have reached it's conclusion. Some have said that gambling is a sin because it's out of covetousness. But when one does it out of common recreation, it seems to be no different from going to the arcade. I for instance have played games and found myself in the top three best scores. It was quite a thrill to place my initials on the board. It rocks to win those things and was there any damage that came out of it? None, whatsoever. The only thing I coveted was to be on the #1 in points. In a gambling situation, it's precisely at that point where you really need to get a grip and ask yourself how much is too much? The thrill of any competition can lead to unrighteous covetousness. Especially when the green stuff rolls in. Weather one is drinking a beer or smoking a cigar, one has to determine his/her own limits. The Law of God illuminated by the Holy Spirit shows us when it's too much. No hedge around the Law can protect us from covetousness. That is simply Pharisaical philosophy.