Adapted from the writings of Dayan Yitzhak Grossman April 17, 2026 Our previous article cited…
Bet Din: Gambling in Halacha
Adapted from the writings of Dayan Yitzhak Grossman
February 12, 2026
Reuters reports:
The Kalshi prediction market was sued for failing to pay $54 million to people who bet that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would leave office before March 1, according to a class-action lawsuit filed on Thursday.
Khamenei was killed on Saturday (February 28) in U.S-Israeli strikes that left hundreds dead, including top Iranian officials. The strikes followed a months-long U.S. military build-up in the region.
Kalshi did not invoke a “death carveout” provision until after the Iranian leader was killed to avoid paying customers in Kalshi’s “Khamenei Market” what they were owed, the lawsuit said.
“With an American naval armada amassed on Iran’s doorstep and military conflict not merely foreseeable but widely anticipated, consumers understood that the most likely—and in many cases the only realistic—mechanism by which an 85-year-old autocratic leader would ‘leave office’ was through his death. Defendants understood this as well,” the lawsuit said.
The language specifying that Khamenei’s departure could be due to any cause, including death, was “clear, unambiguous, and binary,” the lawsuit said, describing Kalshi’s actions as “deceptive” and “predatory.”
The lawsuit, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, said the company continued trading even as news of Khamenei’s death began to circulate.
However, a Kalshi spokesperson said the company’s rules did not change and were clear from the start as it “included every precaution…to make sure people could not trade on the outcome of death.
“We even reimbursed all fees and net losses out of pocket—to the tune of millions of dollars—to make sure not a single person lost money on this market,” the spokesperson said.
Prediction markets have exploded in popularity since the 2024 U.S. election, when their real-time probabilities proved more accurate than polling in forecasting Donald Trump’s victory.
They offer tradable yes-or-no contracts that allow users to bet on a wide range of real-world events, from sports to politics and the economy. Bet costs fluctuate between zero and 100 cents, and typically pay out when an outcome is confirmed.[1]
In some Jewish communities, the Christian holiday period was a time specially designated for gambling. Many gedolim, including the Chasam Sofer, are reported to have made a point of playing dreidel on Chanukah,[2] whereas playing cards on Chanukah is excoriated by both the Mishnah Brurah[3] and the Aruch Hashulchan.[4] While documentation of dreidel on Chanukah goes back only about 250 years,[5] gambling in general on Chanukah is much older. As we shall see, there is a German tradition condoning—if sometimes grudgingly—gambling on Chanukah (and sometimes on certain other festive days) that extends back at least six centuries.[6]
The Mahari Weil, who lived nearly six hundred years ago, records a dispute between a husband and his wife’s supporters: The wife’s supporters accused the husband of squandering his money by gambling, and the husband defended himself by claiming that he engaged in no improper gambling whatsoever except on Chanukah, “as per the minhag.” (The Mahari Weil does not challenge the claim that gambling on Chanukah is condoned by minhag.)[7]
The Mahari Bruna, who lived several decades beyond the Mahari Weil, writes that a certain community banned gambling except for days on which Tachanun is not recited, and gambling was accordingly permitted on Chanukah and similar occasions. The question arose whether gambling was permitted on the night following Chanukah, and the Trumas Hadeshen (R’ Yisrael Isserlin of Marpurk) ruled that it was.[8]
A couple of centuries later, the Chavos Ya’ir (R’ Ya’ir Chaim Bacharach) acknowledged a long-standing minhag to refrain from gambling throughout the year, except on Chanukah. He recalled that when he was a youth, his father, “the chasid” R’ Moshe Shimshon Bacharach, was unhappy with this arrangement that designated Chanukah, a holiday established for thanksgiving and praise, as a time for play and levity. He led a group of communal authorities in an effort to forbid gambling on Chanukah and to allow it instead “on the days of their holidays” (i.e., from December 25 to January 1), as this would not involve a disruption of business, because people remained in their homes then. “But he was unsuccessful, for they did not agree to change the minhag.” (The Chavos Ya’ir mentions this episode in the course of a discussion of when a kehilah may change its minhagim.)[9]
About half a century later, R’ Yosef Yozfa Kushman (~5445-5519) recorded:
In all communities they decreed that gambling is prohibited throughout the year, except for Chanukah and Purim, when it is permitted. And this was a concession to the yeitzer hara, because “it is preferable for Klal Yisrael to eat the meat of dangerously ill animals that were properly shechted (though this is repugnant), and let them not eat the meat of animals that died of their illness.”[10],[11]
Finally, the non-German R’ Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld, rav of Yerushalayim and a younger contemporary of the Mishnah Brurah and Aruch Hashulchan, was asked about those who devote time to mis’chak (play) on Chanukah and similar occasions. His correspondent argued that there is no constructive benefit to such activity, so it constitutes bitul Torah. Rav Sonnenfeld responded that play is a genuine human need, and idleness leads to worse things, like listening to the news, and not everyone is suited to study Torah constantly. He concludes—in striking contrast to the Mishnah Brurah and the Aruch Hashulchan—that we should not cast aspersions on this minhag Yisrael.[12]
Rav Sonnenfeld’s correspondent did not accept his tolerant approach, and he repeatedly tried to argue that such a general dispensation for leisure contradicts the mitzvah to learn Torah constantly. But Rav Sonnenfeld refused to concede the point.[13]
In a similar vein, the Chasam Sofer had previously mentioned an experiment in his time to ban gambling “for a certain period, which included [the Christian] holidays,” and concluded that it was a failure:
I saw with my own eyes that this led to many problems of machlokess and lashon hara, because people were off from work, and all they could do was get together and gamble. But now that this was forbidden, idleness led to many stumbling blocks. I therefore said that the Jewish people are nevi’im, and the early authorities established this minhag (to tolerate gambling)…[14]
The Chasam Sofer qualifies, however, that this is not a dispensation for those who are able to study Torah, because talmud Torah is the definitive countermeasure to lashon hara.[15]
[1]Jasper Ward. Kalshi sued over ouster of Iran leader prediction market. Reuters.
[2]See Nit’ei Gavriel Hilchos Chanukah perek 51.
[3]Biur Halacha end of siman 670.
[4]Aruch Hashulchan ibid. se’if 9.
[5]See R’ Yehoshua Pfeffer, The Chanukah Dreidel and its Halachos.
[6]Cf. Shu”t Chevel Nachalaso 13:20.
[7]Shu”t Mahari Weil siman 135.
[8]Shu”t Mahari Bruna siman 136.
[9]Shu”t Chavos Ya’ir siman 126.
[10]Kidushin 22a-b, explaining why the Torah permits a yefas to’ar.
[11]Noheig Katzon Yosef (Mechon Shlomo Auman–5778), p. 252.
[12]Shu”t Salmas Chaim (Yerushalayim 5767) siman 363.
[13]Ibid. simanim 364-65.
[14]The Chasam Sofer seems to be referring to a minhag to condone gambling on the Christian holidays, similar to the proposal of R’ Moshe Shimshon Bacharach. Some argue that he was referring specifically to nitel: see Otzros Hasofer 4 Kovetz Michtavim pp. 6-10.
[15]Igros Sofrim, Kisvei R’ Moshe Sofer z”l, siman 3.
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