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Definition of GamblingOne dimension of the sin of gambling is the part which falls under the general moral rubric of usury--i.e., making a financial profit on or taking financial advantage of someone else's misfortune. Clearly there are other dimensions to gambling to which others can speak--fate, luck, hazarding, dicing, swearing (some of the latter three connected iconographically to the Crucifixion)--but for your students' questions about The Canterbury Tales' "wager," Chaucer seems clearly to draw a line between the friendly non-fiscal wager of tales' competition and shared dinner of fellowship as reward and the "wages of sin," dicing, hazarding, swearing, and so forth, which are condemned in several characters and their tales' content. Interesting question. I'll be glad to hear others' thoughts. Barbara ----- Original Message ----- From: Tiner, Elza To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2005 8:49 PM Subject: Definition of Gambling Colleagues on the REED Listserve: Where would I find a good definition of forms of gambling in the fourteenth century? My students have raised a question about the Canterbury Tales, that is, the storytelling competition, in which the pilgrims are competing for a prize, resulting in all the others having to pay for the winner's meal at the Tabard, as a form of gambling. While the storytelling competition is a game, would it have been considered a form of gambling? When I looked up gamble in the OED, I did not see a form of this word from the 14th century, though game, its possible predecessor, goes back that far. In notes to the Pardoner's Tale, where gambling is mentioned, Larry Benson describes the game of hazard, with dice, as a game of chance (909). However, is a storytelling competition also a game of chance--does such a connection turn up in any REED accounts? Many thanks for your thoughts on this matter. Elza C. Tiner Professor of English School of Humanities and Social Sciences