In its literal meaning, qimar refers to betting and wagering. Technically, it involves taking ownership of some form of wealth (mal) by way of a wager. Qimar or gambling includes every game in which the winner receives something (money, goods, etc) from the loser. This zero-sum game constitutes wagering on very risky outcomes which shari’a outspokenly forbids.

On the other hand, maysir is broader in scope than qimar. Maysir includes all kinds of gambling, that is, it is more than a particular game of chance. The term “maysir” was originally used as a reference to a pre-Islamic game of arrows in which seven persons gambled for shares (portions) of an allotted prize. Maysir is prohibited by shari’a on the grounds that the agreement between participants is based on immoral inducement provided by entirely wishful hopes in the participants’ minds that they will gain by mere chance, with no consideration for the possibility of loss.