Gambling

Do not desire gambling, even if you can win. What you won is the fish swallowing the hook's metal, taking it for food.

வேண்டற்க வென்றிடினுஞ் சூதினை வென்றதூஉந்
தூண்டிற்பொன் மீன்விழுங்கி யற்று.

For gamblers who gain one and lose a hundred, is there so much as a single road left by which they might reach what is good and live well?

ஒன்றெய்தி நூறிழக்குஞ் சூதர்க்கு முண்டாங்கொ
னன்றெய்தி வாழ்வதோ ராறு.

If the stake on the rolling dice is called without pause, both the wealth gathered and the revenue still coming in will leave and settle somewhere outside.

உருளாய மோவாது கூறிற் பொருளாயம்
போஒய்ப் புறமே படும்.

Gambling brings on many small humiliations a person never had before and destroys the standing he already had; for producing sheer destitution there is not one thing to match it.

சிறுமை பலசெய்து சீரழிக்குங் சூதின்
வறுமை தருவதொன் றில்.

The dice, the gaming hall, and the skill of their own hands — the men who were proud of all three and let go of none of them had once been men of substance, and became men with nothing.

கவறுங் கழகமுங் கையுந் தருக்கி
யிவறியா ரில்லாகி யார்.

Those who have been covered over by the Misfortune that goes here under the name of gambling will not fill their bellies in this life, and will be churned about in torment in the next.

அகடாரா ரல்ல லுழப்பர்சூ தென்னு
முகடியான் மூடப்பட் டார்.

If the time already set aside for virtue, for livelihood and for enjoyment goes into the gaming ground, that spending destroys both the wealth a family has long been used to and the character built in the same slow way.

பழகிய செல்வமும் பண்புங் கெடுக்கும்
கழகத்துக் காலை புகின்.

Gambling destroys the wealth of the one who takes it up, then makes him take falsehood upon himself, then destroys the compassion that rises in his mind, and by that route brings him suffering in both worlds.

பொருள்கெடுத்துப் பொய்மேற் கொளீஇ யருள்கெடுத்
தல்ல லுழப்பிக்குஞ் சூது.

Clothing, wealth, food, renown and learning — all five of these will fail to reach him, if he takes up gambling as his amusement.

உடைசெல்வ மூணொளி கல்வியென் றைந்து
மடையாவா மாயங் கொளின்.

Just as the gambler comes to love gambling more each time he loses by it, so the life within holds its love for the body more each time it suffers through it.

இழத்தொறூஉங் காதலிக்குஞ் சூதேபோற் றுன்ப
முழத்தொறூஉங் காதற் றுயிர்.