Question:
What is the Halacha for gambling? Does it differ for Ashkenazim and Sephardim? Or on a Kosher cruise?
Answer:
Gambling is not permitted, and the reason for it is since the person who loses the bet never really meant to do the bet if he would have thought that he would really lose. (Although he understood that he might lose, nevertheless the person does not give the money wholeheartedly. Therefore in a way it is considered stealing). The Mishna even says that a person that is a gambler by profession is not qualified to be a witness.
This applies for Ashkenazim as well as Sefardim, and I don’t see why being on a kosher cruise would change this.
Sources:
Tracate Sanhedrin 3-3, CH:M 34-16, Mishneh Halachos 6:270, Shilhei D’kaita page 70
