Tips To Overcome A Gambling Addiction

You're surrounded by degenerates. You're throwing away blessings that God gave you. And on top of it, even when you win, it's only temporary because all winning does is just entice you to come back and gamble even more, which means that eventually you're going to lose everything. I have a gambling addiction. I lost $7,000. Any advice? Please stop gambling and find something else that occupies your mind that uh is not going to require all that money. You know, I would say read uh the hum, the five books of Moses with commentary by Rashi. You could get if you don't have a copy of it, you get a one on archold.com. They they sell really good stuff. Um you could read a book called Leavot the uh duties of the heart published by Feldheim or Art Scroll uh that um will teach you the purpose of life and including gambling, including business, including uh all the different things that you could ever think about during a lifetime. Um, and the more you occupy your mind, the less you're going to have a uh lust for uh quick wins, immediate gratification, and uh and and desire to gamble, but it's not an easy thing to uh to to overcome. You're not going to overcome it unless you replace it with something else. I used to play poker many years ago before I did chuba and um it's certainly a uh you know the game itself is fun. So when I found out that it's not allowed, it wasn't a uh uh easy thing to do, but it was a necessary thing to do. When a person the more a person understands that they're in this world to do the will of God in order for them to benefit, in order for you to benefit yourself, you're doing the will of God. you're doing what the Torah says, the easier it becomes for you to do, for you to stop doing things that you want to do, but you know you're not allowed to do. So, the reason why people continue doing things that are against the Torah is because they do not comprehend the ramifications of their actions. The more you believe the Torah, the more you understand the Torah, the more you understand your purpose and obligation in the world, the easier it is is to be to become someone that gives up on worldly desires. So the way for you to overcome it is the same way that I've overcome it and anybody else that has done chuva has overcome it, which is simply to learn more Torah in order to understand your bigger purpose. That's worth a whole lot more than $7,000 and a whole lot more than the uh the um the whole life of gambling. The other thing that you have to also understand is that generally speaking when it comes to gambling, you know, there's a uh no one ever wins other than the house. Like casinos are not built because people win in the casino. Casinos are built because people lose. In fact, even the so-called professional gamblers that are out there are people that lose the vast majority of their life. And they're generally speaking losers, even if they have a lot of money because the way they live their life, it's I've met quite a few of them in my past in past years. They're not exactly the uh nicest people. Let's just say that. uh they're not somebody that you'd want your kids to marry and they're certainly not somebody that uh you'd want to uh be uh alone with in a room to save your life. Uh so generally speaking, when a person is, you know, spends time in the world of gambling, the only thing that they're uh surrounding themselves with is people that are low lives. In addition to that, they're mistreating the blessing that God gave them and throwing it into garbage. just, you know, taking the money and just, you know, you worked for that $7,000. Who knows how many hours if you're, if, let's say, for example, you uh make uh uh even $100 an hour, even $100 an hour, just look at how many hours you had to work. You had to work several days in order to acquire that much money. Now, most people don't make $100 an hour. Most people probably making $15 an hour, $20 an hour, $30 an hour. So look how many hours you work to acquire that money and just throw it away. Just throw it away. So the more you start understanding that, you know, you have to respect the gifts that God gives you and you could do a lot more with it, you could help people that don't have food to eat. You could help people that uh you know that uh you know need uh need real help in life uh with that money and you and you can't do that now because you lost it. the more you understand the ramifications of of your actions, not just when it comes to the divine spiritual world, but also when it comes to the practical world. So, you're surrounded by degenerates. You're you're you're throwing away blessings that God gave you. And on top of it, even when you win, it's only temporary because all winning does is just entice you to come back and gamble even more, which means that eventually you're going to lose everything. So gambling is not good for a lot of reasons. Whether you want to use the Torah's reasons or you want to use the uh practical aspects of it as a justification to stop. Um doesn't matter which one you start with, but ultimately to stay away from gambling, you're going to need the bigger reason, which is the spiritual aspect of it. That's, you know, that's that's going to help you stay away from it because the practical parts of it, you could always rationalize your way out of it. We are meant to be a light unto the nations, not to follow [music] their misguided practices. Remember, every Jew has to remember that he's a Jew and she's a Jew. We don't celebrate non-Jewish holidays, even if they seem harmless.