The earliest documented account of gambling in the world is in a hymn from the Rig Veda, an ancient Indian Sanskrit text written between 1700 and 1100 BCE. It paints a precise and comprehensive picture of the phenomenology, psychopathology and harms of gambling. Excerpts from this hymn (from the tenth book of the Rig Veda) are given below; here, a gambler addresses the dice that have destroyed his life and begs them to spare him:Reference Singh1
‘The Gambler:
These nuts that once tossed on tall trees in the wind
but now smartly roll over the board, how I love them!
As alluring as a draught of Soma on the mountain,
the lively dice have captured my heart.’
‘Chorus:
Dice, believe me, are barbed: they prick and they trip,
they hurt and torment and cause grievous harm.
To the gambler they are like children's gifts, sweet as honey,
but they turn on the winner in rage and destroy him.’
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