http://vimeo.com/3199489

Gambling ruins marriages and friendships and is virtually incurable. Charm and deception becomes part of the chemical makeup of the gambler, whether they need to lie or not and has so been recognized by chazal. DO NOT LEND MONEY TO A GAMBLER; you are feeding his habit and will never get your money back.

There are many types of gambling, we can start on Chanukah where a spin of a dreidle in a 9th grade class can go for 10 dollars, or where a quick office game of k’vitlach can lose your husband a weeks paycheck in a matter of minutes! Then you have lottery tickets, where a 16 year old boy uses his bar mitzvah money or weekly allowance on lottery tickets. Now, one small point for the lottery players out there, the instant scratch off tickets that say you can win a thousand bucks a week for life or an instant million dollars are as fixed as can be. The state does this to make money. They only give back an average of 30 percent on every dollar. So if you win 20 bucks one day you will have to spend another 60 dollars to start getting money again. As for the regular lotto like mega millions and New York Lotto you have a 1 in 45,000,000 chance to match all the winning numbers so when they say “you need a dollar and a dream”, well keep on dreaming!

But the greatest addiction to most men is the game of Poker. It has become extremely popular since the turn of the century where millions have gotten hooked on poker especially the game called Texas Holdem. There are many places to play, some that are legal some that are not. You can go to casinos in Atlantic City or in Connecticut. Or stay local and play at illegal poker clubs (run unfortunately by so called heimishe men) or at a friend’s house. Then there are online poker sites (they are illegal in the United States, but the owners are very smart and they base them out of other countries) where you can play and lose lots of cash from the comfort of your own home and with the click of a mouse! The options are endless! It’s an addiction that has caused many people their friendships, their jobs, or Chas V’shalom their marriages! I know of cases where wives think their husbands are at work or in yeshiva, when they are really wasting their precious time and money playing poker. Teenagers that could be using their valuable time to learn Torah fall into this terrible yetzer hora at local internet cafes or playing a few rounds of cards with friends. I know of a few instances where boys have gone into their marriages in debt because of gambling and credit card debts reaching well into the thousands. It is hard enough financially for most young couples, they really don’t need to start in debt. Then there are married men who unfortunately get so in debt they end up losing their wives and children over this. I am writing this letter to help make known this growing issue in the frum world. If you know of someone or suspect someone of having this terrible addiction, help them! Rabbeim, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, family members, friends etc… please help out those who need it. B”H we have yeshivas in many different states. In Connecticut near the yeshiva there is a large casino and in New Jersey, not so far from Lakewood is Atlantic City. We have to keep an eye out on this growing issue. May Hashem help us in overcoming any problems or addictions we might have!

Another way to lose money is betting on sports. Even though following sports might be a good outlet for some, when it turns to betting on games, families have been damaged.

VERY IMPORTANT INFO; please boys and men don’t fool for the Coney Island scam game where they ask you to double your money to win a huge teddy bear or big price… They never give you the price and you lose hundreds of dollars…… Those that have been to Coney island arcades know what I am talking about!!