Title: Setting Prizes through Contribution of Participants - Is it a Case of Gambling? Question: I play cricket very often. Sometimes both teams set some sort of bid that the loser will offer lunch or something related to it. Should I call it gambling? What Islam says in this regard? Answer: When any reward is given to any individual or group on the basis of their ability or better performance, it does not come under the scope of wager. Wager or gambling is a reward based on some uncontrollable external contingency alone. To understand the phenomenon thoroughly, consider the following two situations: All the participating teams in a tournament pool a certain amount of money, which is to be given away to the team that wins the tournament. An individual puts his money on one of the teams. The deal is that if that team wins, he will get back double the amount of the money that he had originally staked; on the other hand, if any other team wins, the person shall lose all his money staked. The first situation does not come under the scope of wager, as it is a reward for the team that performs better in the tournament. While, the second situation is an obvious case of wager; here the return for the individual is based on an uncontrollable external contingency. 20 th August 1999