stock market and casino

Post by **_PAULESPINO** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 5:09 am

I just would like to ask do they have the same principle?

Is it a sin to participate in these activities?

Post by **_Homer** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 8:05 pm

Is it a sin for an individual to own a business? Can two individuals be partners in a business? How about ten? One hundred? One hundred thousand? When does the number of owners make ownership of a part of business enterprise a sin?

Post by **_PAULESPINO** » Sun Mar 23, 2008 11:59 pm

Is it a sin for an individual to own a business?

I would say no.

Post by **_Steve** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 12:52 am

Hi Paul,

What Homer is pointing out is that buying company shares in the stock market is simply becoming a part owner (along with thousands of other part owners) of that business in which you have invested. The stock market simply spreads the ownership of a business out thin enough to make it affordable for many people to own small percentages of it, and thus to share in the company profits as well.

Any business enterprise is a gamble, but not necessarily of the same kind as the gambling that goes on in casinos. Owning a business is a way to possibly increase your investment through the provision of a product or service that others need (or feel that they need). If the product or service is fills a valid need, and is delivered and managed in a responsible manner, the chances are good that the investment will end up profitable. In a casino, the chances are very high that you will lose money, not gain any, and you will not have provided any good for anyone else (except for the owners and employees of the casino) in the process. This has stewardship ramifications for the Christian.

Thus, I think that owning a business (or investing in the stock market) is not the same kind of gamble as is involved in gaming. However, "playing the stock market" can be another kind of risky game, if it involves second-guessing which companies are about to prosper, putting your money into them at the opportune moment, and then attempting to sell at just the right time. It has been observed that Wall Street operates upon two human impulses: fear and greed. Such motives, of course, are a matter of concern to the believer.

It is not a sin to be part owner in a business at which you do not work yourself, but there is something wholesome, I think, in doing a day's work for your day's pay, rather than hoping to get rich by outsmarting the general public in buying and selling shares of various companies ahead of the other investors by divining just the right moment to shift your assets. Some do this well, and I don't begrudge them their gains, but there is something satisfying about producing something of value with your own labor and deriving an honest living in face-to-face transactions with the people you serve.

Those are my few thoughts on a subject that I know very little about.

See 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12.

Post by **_PAULESPINO** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 2:33 am

Thanks Steve,

This is very helpful.