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Fatwa CenterRecovered lost money from gambling
Question
I lost some money while betting, wanted to stop it forever but then decided to first recover all the money I lost and then quit it forever. Luckily I recovered the money I lost. Now I have decided never to indulge myself into this menace again. My question is: Is the money I recovered back (which originally belonged to me and I lost through betting) Halaal for me? I have distributed the extra money (profit) I made to the poor. Now I am left with my original money. Is that Halaal for me to use? Please advise.
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 is His slave and Messenger. We ask Allaah to exalt his mention as well as that of his family and all his companions.
It appears that the betting that you were engaged in before is forbidden which is that you either lose or win. So, first you have to sincerely repent to Allaah fulfilling all the conditions of repentance that are mentioned in Fatwa: 87903. If you repent, Allaah will accept your repentance, Inshaa' Allaah. The Prophet 
said: "Whoever repents before the Sun rises from the West (i.e. the coming of the last Hour), Allaah will accept his repentance." [Muslim]
As regards the money that you had won from betting, it is ill-gotten and you won it in a forbidden way so you are obliged to get rid of it all. Losing some money in betting does not make it permissible for you to do that again in order to win money on the pretext that you wanted to get back what you lost. So the money that you had won is forbidden and you are obliged to get rid of it all.
Allaah Knows best.
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