Wanna Bet?

Ever buy a lottery ticket and rationalize that if God would just let you win that you would give 10% or more immediately to the church or God’s work? Ever rationalize that playing the lotto in the variety of forms was alright because the money was going to help education and prescriptions for the elderly? Seeing how 95% of Americans have gambled in their life times, I am guessing that many Christians have used these exact excuses for playing the lotto. I know I did when I was just a new Christian. Who does not want to get rich the quick way?

There is no command in the Bible that says we cannot gamble, but there are a lot of principles that give us a clear indication of what our response should be to it. 1 Timothy 6:10 tells us, "For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." And Hebrews 13:5 declares, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

When you gamble you are moving down a road that fulfills the first verse, of loving the money and moving towards evil, as I believe gambling leads to evil, and the second because it is trying to place your fate in your own hands through luck.

Where the Bible does not explicitly say we cannot gamble, it certainly implies it. Just as the Bible never uses the word Trinity to describe God, it certainly implies it in a variety of places. It is implied because of the verses that talk about money, but the fact that gambling breaks quite a few of the 10 commandments, and I will touch on a few.

The first one is we are breaking the first commandment, and by far probably the most important one. When we are placing our hands in luck and luck and God are mutually exclusive from one another, as luck would entail that something happens apart from the will of God. Believing in luck is belief in something other than God and therefore breaking the first commandment.

Secondly we are not being good stewards with what God, not luck, has given us. Prov. 12:11, “"he who works his land will have abundant food, but he who chases fantasies lacks judgment." Playing the lottery is just that a fantasy of getting what you did not work for and taking what others typically could not afford to lose, which takes us to our third reason for not gambling.

We are not loving our neighbors when we are gambling. Some one always loses. There is no win-win situation in gambling. Many people lose in gambling so one person can win. It is a self-centered game and nothing about it is loving. Gambling is designed to take advantage of people, and mainly those who are not typically able to afford to do so.

Covetousness raises its sleazy little head when we are gambling because it is taking what other have, as that is exactly the object. To take what others have and give nothing in return. Where Philippians 4:11-12 tells us, “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: 12I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.” We are not to long after what others have, as we are to be content with what God has given us.

But someone may say people do win, as it helps the kids with education and with prescription drugs. Is this really true? I do not remember personally anyone telling me they were playing for that reason. The reason people play is for the greed of riches, which is why the government uses it to get your money. There has been a couple of jack-pots over 300 million dollars, and there is not that many people in the U.S. They could just take that amount and give 1 million to each person in the U.S. and then they each could donate to the schools and the elder generation would be able to afford their pills, not to mention everyone else. Do we really want to go down the slippery slope of rationalizing evil or bad because it helps education and the elderly. That is why we now have abortion and are now talking about euthanasia.

Do a study on any major city that has gambling legalized and see what you get. What you get is higher crime rate, alcoholism, prostitution, bankruptcy, spousal abuse, and higher suicide rates. Today there are more teenagers addicted to gambling then ever before. More then a million teenagers are addicted today, and with that have come twice the amount of suicide attempts. Sounds like a great way to make the education system better to me, and I am sure many elderly would love to win because of everyone else’s misery. Jesus would be proud.

If we took the money that was gambled and used it for the work of God there would be little need today for the welfare system, as there would be plenty of money.

Though gambling is not stated specifically in the Bible we can discern from the Bible that there is nothing good that comes from it. And as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:12, “All things are lawful for me, but all things are not helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.”