The Problem with Gambling

Sermons

The Problem with Gambling

Gambling is addictive, leads to corruption, ruins lives, and violates Scripture.

Walking down the terminal of O'Hare Airport, she carried a large cardboard replica of the $3,000,000 check she had won from a slot machine in Las Vegas. Her children had given her the trip. She had spent just a few dollars on this machine, but she hit the jackpot. She was a winner.

"It's not going to change my life," she said. "I'm going to pay off my bills. Give some of the money to my children. Set up some college funds for my grandkids. I'll still go to work. I'll go back to Vegas and play a few slot machines. But it's not going to change my life."

We all say, "Yeah, right."

And for just a moment I think: Why couldn't it be me? I could use a few extra dollars. We need a new car. We could pay off the house, set aside some money for our daughter's college fund, give some to the church for the new building. Why couldn't it be me?

Gambling is putting at risk something of value, in hopes of getting something more valuable in return.

From the advertisements, one would believe that gamblers are white people who spend just a few dollars on the lottery or the slot machines. People who can afford to blow a few dollars, to spend a week of recreation in Las Vegas. It's not a problem or an addiction to them. It's just entertainment, a means of passing the time. As in many cases, if we made our judgments based solely on advertising, we would be sadly misinformed. The typical gambler is someone like Bill, a worker who's barely making ends meet. He's not bankrupt, but he's in serious financial difficulty. He's married with children. Those children frequently go to bed hungry because he's spent dollars intended for food on lottery tickets. Because he had a hunch that he would hit the big one.

Recently Bill won a $500 lottery prize. He threw a party for the neighbors. Amid all the excitement, the lucky winner never mentioned that over the past few years he had spent in excess of $5,000 on lottery tickets.

But Bill is not alone. In 1990, Americans placed legal bets of over $286 billion dollars. That's equivalent to 5 percent of the Gross National Product. That's more than the total amount spent on elementary and secondary education in this country.

It is nearly four times the amount given to religious institutions. Over of that money was spent in casinos, but state lotteries are growing in importance.

Gambling, at its bare essence, is putting at risk something of value in the hopes of getting something far more valuable in return. Implicit is the idea that the winnings of a few are financed by the losses of the many. A line exists between gambling and risk taking. And let me tell you, that line is often fuzzy and hard to distinguish.

We take risks every day. When you got in your car, you took a risk that you would get here safely. Many of you will board an airplane this week to fly to some destination, and you're taking a risk that you'll arrive at your destination safely. Many of you have placed money in the stock market hoping for a substantial return. You have taken a risk.

Since there's nothing inherently wrong with taking a risk, then the next logical questions are: "Well, is it okay to play the lottery?" or "Why shouldn't we go to Vegas for a weekend retreat if we don't spend more than we can afford?" Some ask, "What's the difference between a day on the riverboat casino and a day at Great America, if you don't spend any more money?"

I was in Las Vegas a few years ago—not to gamble, but along with 20,000 other pastors and their wives, to attend the Southern Baptist Convention. I saw the bright lights. I saw those plush hotels. I watched the winners receive their checks, surrounded by cameras and reporters. I have seen the lottery ads on television, and their sharp jingles are sure enticing.

We need to ask ourselves some serious questions about gambling.

Rather than argue whether one should or should not gamble, I would like to expose to you what goes on behind those bright lights and alluring ads. I would like to examine gambling from a biblical perspective. Then I'd like to ask you some crucial questions.

In many instances, it has corrupted people. In a recent edition of our local paper, they reported that casino gambling interests in this state put more than $1.2 million dollars in politicians' pockets during a 12 period ending this past June. According to the article, Illinois gambling concerns spent more to influence legislators than casino operators in Las Vegas spent to bankroll the campaigns of legislators in that state during the same 12 period!

State Senator Peter Fitzgerald, a leading legislative critic of the gambling industry, says, "This study shows empirically what I've sensed intuitively since my first day in the legislature; namely, the gambling interests have a on Illinois state government."

He adds, "The attraction of gambling for legislators isn't the tax revenue it generates; it's the campaign contributions."

I'm not saying that the folks who received these large sums of money from the gambling industry are corrupt. I am saying that whenever anyone gets huge amounts of money like that, their ability and their influence has been altered substantially.

So the first question that we need to ask ourselves concerning risk is: Does my contribute to the corruption of other people?

This is not just a possibility. This is fact. When gambling was legalized in New Jersey, crime more than tripled from 1976 to 1989.

Serious crimes totaled a little over 4,000 in 1976, the year before the casinos opened, and increased to over 14,000 serious crimes in 1989. Interestingly enough, during that same period of time, the resident population in Atlantic City declined by 6,000 persons.

William Webster, former FBI director, said, "I really don't see how one can expect to run legalized gambling anywhere without serious problems.

"Anytime organized crime sees an opportunity to put a fix on something, to get an edge on something, it will be there. And gambling" he adds, "is still the largest source of revenue for organized crime."

Does my contribute to crime?

Politicians in this and every state where there is a lottery have told us a lie. They have said, "If you will support the lottery, we will use that money to fund education."

For every five dollars the lottery gives to the schools, the state takes away four. The lottery puts the state in the gambling business, and it does what other forms of gambling do not do: it brings gambling right into our neighborhoods. It puts gambling on TV. The lottery is such a vital part of our lives that, even if the news runs over, the lottery numbers never run over. They're on at the same time every night. As a result, lotteries are introducing more people to wagering than any other form of social gambling

My research indicates that lotteries are indeed educating our children. But they're educating our children on how to gamble. A survey of Southern California high school students found that the percentage participating in any form of gambling went up by 40 percent after the state lottery was introduced in 1985.

On October 4,1983, a couple in Erie, Pennsylvania, painstakingly searched for winning numbers among six thousand lottery tickets after their nephew, Richard Smith, had gambled away his family's life savings in a futile attempt to win the state jackpot of $2.5 million. Having failed, he became despondent and attempted suicide. Despite the tragic consequences of this situation, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania lottery stated that refunds are impossible.

Who then, should be held accountable for this tragic loss of a family's resources and the near loss of a human life? Surely the young man acted imprudently if not foolishly. He must shoulder a share of the responsibility. Yet is that all?

This much is clear. The state of Pennsylvania used its power, money, and influence to deliberately encourage and entice Richard Smith to do precisely what Richard Smith did. He was not warned by the state that he was seven times more likely to be struck by lightning than to win the lottery. His money was gladly taken by the state, and the state has no intention of returning it.

Does my harm society, especially young people?

Probably the most destructive aspect of legalized gambling is that it teaches the American people, especially the young, to believe in an ethic of luck instead of an ethic of hard work and investment. Gambling alters the very value system and moral fiber of our society by advocating a mentality. It promotes a mindset that says there's no need to get an education. Why should I work? Simply buy a lottery ticket and hit the big one. After all, the ads say, "The odds are with you."

But the biblical view of work affords no room for the practice of gambling. Exodus 20:9 says, "Six days you shall labor and do all your work." Ephesians 4:28 says, "He who has been stealing must steal no longer but must work, doing something useful with his own hands." Work has a functional value. It is rooted in necessity. Work has a divine value. It is rooted in creativity. And work has a dignity value. It is rooted in our .

The Scriptures clearly inform us that we are to work for ourselves, for our family and for our God.

Am I gambling for things I should work for?

Gambling picks the pockets of the poor. Study after study has shown that the poor spend a disproportionately high share of their income on lottery tickets. A California study recently showed that four out of every ten players were unemployed.

A recent survey by the Chicago Sun Times showed the average per capita lottery purchase was $221 in the ten Chicago zip codes with the lowest incomes. That's almost three times greater than the $76 spent in the Chicago zip codes with the highest incomes.

The Des Moines Register reported that lottery ticket sales surge when welfare checks arrive. A supermarket's records show that on Thursday, July 31, only 37 instant tickets were purchased. Welfare checks arrived on Friday, and on Saturday the store sold 348 tickets. A ninefold increase. In effect, what the state is doing is taking back its welfare through the lottery system.

Furthermore, gambling uses people as a means to a financial end. What drives the gambling industry? As we've seen in recent weeks, it's the same thing that drives the pornography industry and the abortion industry: Money, pure, unadulterated greed. Exorbitant profits are conned off the losers. The gambling owners, including state governments where lotteries are held, are nothing more than pushers. People are used and abused as a means to a financial gain.

Doesn't it seem wrong to you that the state governments installed to protect and serve its people are now manipulating and conning its citizens?

There ought to be a warning label on lottery tickets, like the one on cigarette packages, that says, "There's absolutely no way you can win." The only winners in the lottery are a few bureaucrats in our government and the people who are running the lotteries. The only winners in the casinos are the owners and the people who provide the technology to assemble all those games and slot machines. Casinos have a profit margin of somewhere between 85 and 95 percent.

The biblical view of serving people allows no room for gambling. The apostle Paul stated it this way: "Let no debt remain outstanding except the continuing debt to love one another. For he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law, and whatever other commandments there may be are summed up in this one rule: Love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to its neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law."

The word "neighbor" here includes all the men, women, and children in the entire human family. Love leads us to seek the good and welfare and interest of others. It never allows us the luxury of to the exclusion of the other person's interests and needs. The Christian sees a neighbor as an end to be served, not as a means to be used to gain some other end.

So the next question you need to ask yourself in reference to your risk taking is: Does my risk taking require me or someone else to manipulate and use people for financial gain?

The basis for gambling is desperation—the allurement that one dollar may be parlayed into millions. Remember, these folks are from families who are desperate for some way out. They are bucking absurd odds in hopes that they can get some money and live the American dream. Gambling, in essence, is a regressive tax on desperation.

Interestingly enough, churches and gambling sell the same intangible product, and that product is hope. We all want to know if we have enough. All of us want to know if we'll be able to send our kids to college. All of us want to know if we'll be able to retire before our health becomes too frail. Yet, the Bible teaches us that hope is found in a person, and that person is Jesus Christ.

Romans 15:4 says, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope."

The hope that we have in Christ is guaranteed hope. It's a winner. It's the ultimate jackpot. History has taught us, and eternity will confirm it, that our hope in Christ is sure. The fact remains that we are either chancing our way through life or we are trusting our way through life.

Many people don't need God because they're gambling too much. Many people who play the lottery play it because they have little confidence in God. But the Scriptures say, "The blessings of the Lord brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it." God does not operate by luck, and he does not expect his children to operate by luck. We are to live by his providence with our hope secure in him, not in the false promises of gambling. Is my designed to displace God as the supplier of my needs?

My mother advised all of her children, "Don't drink even a single drink of alcohol because it eventually will lead to another drink, then another, then another."

Likewise, buying an innocent lottery ticket or taking a day's trip on a riverboat casino can potentially lead to another trip, another ticket; and the downward spiral has begun. As my mother said, "Don't start, and you won't get hooked."

The apostle Paul said it this way in 1 Corinthians 6:12. "Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything."

Anything that becomes an addiction is illegitimate for a Christian to continue doing. Compulsive gamblers never start out that way. They all started out as casual, recreational gamblers. They did it for fun. What's a buck or two here or there? Then gambling went from being fun to being serious. They had to win. Then it moved from being serious to being a dependency. They found their joy in gambling and were miserable when they were not doing it. Now they can't quit.

Is my becoming addictive?

Steve had no reason to believe that Kate, his wife of 16 years, was anything other than a devoted wife and mother of two—a boy and a girl ages nine and eleven. Life seemed pretty normal for this family in Colleyville, Illinois.

Kate did all the right things. She tatted lace, knitted scarves, and collected pig figurines. She was a volunteer at their local church. If it hadn't have been for that one little excursion. ...

Steve and Kate had decided to visit a casino to celebrate her fortieth birthday. They agreed ahead of time to control their spending. They would spend no more than $40. It was a nice birthday outing, but something happened to Kate that night. Somehow gambling caught her in its grips, even after just one experience. Unknown to Steve, Kate returned to gambling in a big way.

She stopped paying the house mortgage. She pawned her wedding rings, then his. She lost time and time again, but she kept going back until she had quietly bankrupted the family. Finally, Kate was notified by a process server and officials from the sheriff's office that the bank was foreclosing on their home. The family would have to move.

That morning she drove her children to school. When she returned back home, she took a pistol from the basement desk drawer. She wrote a note addressed: "To whom it may concern." She drove to a nearby parking lot, crawled into the back seat, and shot herself in the head. The shame and embarrassment were simply too much for her.

"Obviously," her husband said, "she could not face me or our minister or anybody else about it." Later he found a paper trail that read like a diary of Kate's hidden life aboard the gambling boats along the Mississippi.

Gambling can be addictive. Once people are within its grasp, gambling can rob them of not only their money, but their home, their family, and quite possibly their life.

In the words of my mother, "If you don't start, you won't get hooked."

Rick Ezell is senior pastor of Naperville Baptist Church in Naperville, Illinois. He is the author of Ministry on the Cutting Edge.