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Quote from: Dolores

This topic has been covered several times on CI.  Gambling, in it of itself, is not a sin.  It can become sinful, however, if one gambles so much that he can no no longer support his family.

As ggreg correctly pointed out, gambling is not unlike alcohol; in moderation there is nothing wrong with it, but it it can became sinful in excess.

You may been technically correct Dolores.  However, every friend
acquaintance, and family member went into gambling and in every
case corrupted himself and those around him.  Such as getting rich
without working, finding a golden pot of treasure. Getting rich fast
through the lottery, and ending up losing every penny and red cent.
Families starving and being run out of their houses because the
gambling of one member has taken most of all the income.
When we say the act of contrition in confession, remember this part
"AVOID ALL OCCASIONS OF SIN"  This is why, Dolores, gambling
is always a sin because it leads people into accepting sinful life styles.
Dolores, when you go to confession and after the Priest gives you
absolution, be conscience in reciting every phrase of the act of
contrition especially "avoiding all occasion of sin".
Dolores, please learn your Traditional Catholic Faith from a to z
and you will never say that Gambling is not ever a sin.
Good Day, Dolores.  I hope you learn more of your Catholic Faith on
CI.

Since you can drink alcohol, which is a drug, in moderation and it not be a sin let alone a moral sin, then I would have thought you could gamble in moderation too as a hobby or pastime.

A Trad lady I know has just got engaged to a young man who works selling bloodlines for racehorses.  They dropped in for dinner last week and he told me that he makes around $10-20k per year gambling when he knows enough about the horse to skew the odds in his favour.

His account at every on-line bookmaker is closed, because if you continue winning they close your account.

He offered to get me free tickets to the horse races for the whole family as he is connected to some high profile owners and tracks.  These tickets are worth at least $200 for the eight of us.  So I'm planning to go along with the whole family and have a day at the races as an interesting experience and family day out.  I'll probably gamble around $100 at the track mostly letting the kids bet on their favourite horses in some of the races.  We will bring a picnic so all told it will be a reasonably good value day out for the whole family.

Once a year we all bet on a famous steeplechase race called The Grand National and then plug in the antenna to the TV and watch it live and scream for our horses.  Betting on it makes it much more fun and I did this as a kid so I am kind of following a family tradition.  We usually lose around $60 per year, but every five years or so we've won say $200-$300 and spent the money on an outing or some other treat.

Four times a year we play poker or blackjack with family and friends.  We usually stake about $10 to $25 each.

I don't consider the amount of gambling I do as sinful inasmuch as it is clearly under control and purely a leisure social activity.  In some cases I am simply losing the money to or winning the money from other family members so net-net there is no loss.