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(F 375) What is the ruling on participating in a game where each participant contributes a sum of money, and the winner receives the total amount collected? Does the ruling depend on the nature of the game — for example, whether it relies on luck or on a specific skill? Does it also matter whether the winner receives the prize as cash or as a product purchased with the money?

Participation in a game, tournament, or competition where money is collected from each participant — whether the amounts are equal or different — and one of the participants wins the total collected amount is considered prohibited gambling. This is because it falls under the category of risking money for money.

Allāh Almighty says: “O you who believe! Intoxicants, gambling, stone altars, and divining arrows are an abomination of Satan’s work, so avoid them so that you may be successful. Satan only wants to sow enmity and hatred among you through intoxicants and maysir (gambling) and to hinder you from the remembrance of Allah and from prayer. Will you not then desist?”
[Al-Mā᾽idah 5:90–91]

In the ḥadīth of Qays ibn Sa῾d ibn ῾Ubadah (may Allāh be pleased with them both), the Messenger of Allāh (peace and blessings be upon him) said: “Verily, my Lord has forbidden for me: alcohol and maysir (gambling)…” [Reported by ᾽Aḥmad]

The ruling does not change whether different names are given to the same practice. It does not change whether it is called gambling, betting, wagering, or maysir. The common factor among these names is that they involve staking money (or its equivalent) on an uncertain outcome, whether that outcome depends on luck or skill.

The ruling also does not change based on the type of game, as Ibn Ḥajar said in Az-Zawājir:
“Major Sin No. 443: Gambling, whether practiced independently or alongside a disliked game such as chess or a prohibited one like dice.”

Moreover, the form of the prize does not affect the ruling — whether the prize is given as the collected cash or as something else purchased with that money.

The permitted scenarios are limited to three cases:

  1. The prize is offered by someone other than the participants.
  2. The prize is provided by one participant only, without reciprocal risk.
  3. A third party, who has not paid any entry fee, participates in the competition — a concept known among jurists as the al-muḥallil (third-party) or the “third horse between two horses”.

Fatwā issued by Dr. Khālid Naṣr