Today, in the evening, Vaibhav, Sambhav and I were going in the car. I was driving the car while Sambhav was sitting on the front seat and Vaibhav was on the back seat. On the way, we were remembering our old memories. Vaibhav asked me whether I had gone to casino when I went to Nepal. I told him that I had been to casino when I went there. I also played there games on machines and also on the table of roulette. I purchased some coins for a few hundred rupees and enjoyed there. Moreover I was not a looser; even I earned a little more money than I spent there. I told what I saw there. I narrated him a story of a man who was playing there on roulette. He was drunk and was gambling there in lakhs. In the beginning, he was in profit and won about ten lakhs. But in the last he staked all his money along with the winning amount; he lost that game and lost his whole money. After that he left the table and went staggering downstairs. I said, ‘People like me go there for the sake of fun but the people who really gamble there, like that guy are the real customers of a casino.’
I said that it is not a good game. In my opinion, if any body spends such huge amount in some social work, he will get more pleasure. Vaibhav was not agreeing with my thoughts. He said that it is a matter of hobby and one can waste any amount of money for the sake of hobby. I was not agreeing with his argument in the meanwhile we reached Ashok Vihar. So, I dropped there as my clinic is in Ashok Vihar. I was not very much convinced with Vaibhav’s argument. I searched out the meaning of hobby on the net. I found the meaning of hobby is this— ‘A hobby is an activity or interest that is undertaken for the pleasure or relaxation, often in one’s spare time.’ The meaning of gambling which I found on Wikipedia is this— ‘Gambling is the wagering of money or something of material value on an event with an uncertain outcome with the primary intent of winning additional money and/or material goods. Typically, the outcome of the wager is evident within the short period.’ In a nut shell I could say that gambling can be a profession for some people. I know more than a hundred types of activities that come under the category of hobby. But I have not found gambling in the list of hobby. It is also clear that an activity may be a hobby for a person and the same activity may be a profession for the other. For example—Cooking may be a hobby for an engineer but it is a profession for chef. Gardening, stamp-collecting, music, singing, drawing, mountaineering, rafting, reading books, and teaching etc. are the common hobbies found in people. When we do some work for money it is considered as a profession. It is also true that a person sometimes starts some work as a hobby but on a latter stage he converts it into a profession; there is a vice-versa also.
Therefore, there is a clear difference between hobby and profession. In my opinion, gambling is a profession, and it can’t be kept in the list of hobby.