The Kural or the Maxims of Tiruvalluvar/Chapter 94
CHAPTER 94
GAMBLING
931. Take not to gambling even if thou win : for thy wins are even as the baited hook that the fish swalloweth.
932. Behold the gamblers who lose a hundred where they gain but one: is there forsooth a way even for them to thrive in the world?
933. If a man bet constantly over dice, his substance will only go into stranger hands.
934. Nothing bringeth on wretchedness so surely as gambling: for it killeth a man's good name and driveth his heart to every ignoble deed.
935. Many there have been who were proud of their skill in the throwing of dice and were mad after the gambling-house: but there hath not been a single man of them that did not come to grief.
936. Behold the men that are blinded by the Genius of Wretchedness who cometh in the form of a passion for gambling : they will starve and suffer every misery.
937. If thou throw away thy time at the gambling-house, thy inheritance will be consumed and thy fair name will be wiped out.
938. Gambling will consume thy substance and corrupt thy honesty: it will harden thy heart and bring on thee misery.
939. Glory, learning, wealth, and even food and clothing will depart from the man who betaketh himself to gambling.
940. The passion for gambling increaseth with the losses incurred in the bettings: even so doth the craving of the soul for life grow with the griefs that it suffereth therein.
