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Fatwa CenterPredicting results of sports matches
Question
Assalaamu alaykum. Hi, so here is the situation. In India, cricket is present, and they have sponsorships as well. One such sponsor is FreeCharge, which is a startup for paying your bills and doing recharges. If you recharge your phone, you get some tokens. A recharge of 100 Rs can give you two tokens. When you get tokens and there is a cricket match, then there is a game of prediction, if you predict 150 in the game and the first team playing scores 150, then you get a cashback of 150 Rs. That is it. Because of this prediction game, I am confused whether the cashback that we win is halal or haram.
Answer
All perfect praise be to Allaah, The Lord of the worlds. I testify that there is none worthy of worship except Allaah and that Muhammad, sallallaahu ‘alayhi wa sallam, is His slave and Messenger.
We have previously underlined in past fataawa that betting through predicting results of sports matches falls into the category of prohibited gambling.
The Kuwaiti Encyclopedia of Fiqh reads:
"Betting can be of different meanings, one of which is taking a risk. This aspect of betting means that two people or groups of people bet on the occurrence of something that may or may not take place. For example, this is like saying, 'If it does not rain tomorrow, then I will pay you such-and-such, and otherwise you pay me the same amount.' Betting in such a manner is prohibited among those who are legislatively obliged to adhere to Islamic teachings, Muslims and Thimmi citizens (Jews or Christians living under the care of the Muslim state) alike, according to the scholarly consensus, because winning and losing are equally possible in this scenario (participants here are equally subjected to win or loss), and this is a form of the prohibited gambling." [Briefly excerpted]
The Permanent Committee for Islamic Research and Fataawa was asked, "Some people buy sports magazines in order to fill up horse-racing coupons predicting the winning horse in each round of the race in order to win a prize. Is this permissible?" The answer reads, "This is prohibited because it falls into the category of prohibited betting, which is a form of gambling. Allaah, The Exalted, says (what means): {O you who have believed, indeed, intoxicants, gambling, (sacrificing on) stone altars (to other than Allaah), and divining arrows are but defilement from the work of Satan, so avoid it that you may be successful.} [Quran 5:90] Hence, such an act involves the unjust consumption of wealth..."
Allaah knows best.
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