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Nicholas (not his real name) tried to convince me that God would bless his gambling because he fully intended to give a good portion of his gains to our church. As his minister, I did my best to disabuse him of his delusion. Not surprisingly, there were no gains. Eventually, Nicholas stopped coming to church. Why? He was in prison.
Gambling addictions thrive on a sick distortion of something we cannot live without--something at the core of any healthy soul -- hope! But it is a false and pretentious hope that shackles the gambling addict, win or lose. The worst scenario is when a temporary gambling gain deceives the addict enough to reinforce that twisted impersonation of hope in the gambler’s heart. This pretentious hope cannot live in the same heart with Christian hope.
News flash!
Lotteries, like casinos, make money because most people lose. Our government makes about $40 billion a year preying on citizens willing to stake their meager means on lousy odds. State officials blitz the public with lottery advertisements around the first of each month, when government benefits, payroll and Social Security payments go out. That’s when disposable cash-flow peaks for poor people on fixed incomes.
One advertising slogan in Chicago said, "This could be your ticket out." The question is, out of what? Answer; control!
The government has no business in this business. It exploits those at the lower end of our social scale for easy money. And it undermines, even mocks, core Christian values like patience, sacrifice, discipline, hard work and hope. Richard Neuhaus, in First Things (September, 1991) said that “state-sponsored gambling undercuts the civic virtue upon which democratic governance depends."
Gambling and Slavery
Gambling is much like slavery -- one side gains wealth at the expense of the other. Both gambling and slavery are win-lose operations. The winners gain wealth through the losses and/or labor of others. Ultimately, that’s not good business.
Good business in a free market economy is when both (or all) sides win. In a free transaction, I trade something I want less for something I want more--and so does the other party. Free market capitalism so often yields prosperity because, to the degree that each transaction is honest, both sides win. And when a free people engage in millions of win-win transactions daily, a lot of human needs and goals are advanced.
“Big deal,” you say. The losers knew the risk going in.
My response is that the willingness of slaves to serve does not justify slavery. I believe God wants us to pursue win-win scenarios in our transactions with others.
Marriage was formed to be a win-win scenario. If just one side loses, the whole relationship is on the ropes.
It is a win-win operation when we volunteer to tutor a child, run errands for a new mom, do yard work for the elderly, transport someone to church, donate your time at a food bank, make a mutual covenant or deal, go on a mission trip, help at a crisis pregnancy center, raise money for a good cause, give Bibles away, or take in a foster child. Human needs are met and your spiritual health flourishes!
With gambling, however, one party is exploited--even if he is unwise enough to willingly participate. If you win, you make life worse for another. If you lose, well, you lose. You create no product that benefits anyone and you make no healthy contribution to society. You serve only to pull another down as you rise at their expense.
That is as far from Christian as it gets.
Joel Mark Solliday, B.A., M.Div., is the editor of Campus CrossWalk and the pulpit minister of the Northern Light Church of Christ in Minnesota. A Pepperdine graduate, he later worked in their Campus Life Office as the Activities Coordinator and later served as a Missionary in Residence at ACU. He earned his M.Div. at Fuller Theological Seminary. His wife Katie is a junior high school teacher.
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