Gambling

Are you a Gambler at heart? And do you think gambling is a sin? I've been taking a look at this topic because I have a Christian friend (it's really NOT me) who is caught in the snare of gambling. And I wanted to discuss it with them, and so I looked in the Bible for some good "fire and brimstone" verses on gambling and I couldn't find a single verse specifically against gambling. And so, I wanted to dig into it some more, which has led me to this post – Is gambling sinful?

 

OK, let's differentiate between casual gambling versus addictive gambling. I think everyone agrees that obsessive gambling is sinful, destructive to a person's life, and dangerous. But what about anything short of being a Gambleaholic, what should we as Christians think about others who enjoy gambling recreationally, or even count on it as a source of income?

 

First, let me lay my cards on the table (so to speak). I don't gamble. But I enjoy learning about games like Texas Hold'Em, and I do play it on my Windows Vista computer (it's one of the free Microsoft games that come with it.) And I recently played one game of Hold'Em with some friends, and I lost my $20 that I put in, but it was a lot of fun. I see gambling as combining two dangerous attractions for especially men: competing against others to dominate and win, and the lure of winning money. And so, being good at playing games like Blackjack or Texas Hold'Em is doubly hazardous because if you win, you think you deserve it. But if you lose you think you're good enough to win it back. But no one knows who Lady Luck is going to spend the evening with.

 

Alright, my last comment about "Lady Luck" brings up a rabbit trial on the sovereignty of God. The few Bible verses on gambling speak about God controlling things like the outcome of dice (or more properly the lot). See, as an example Proverbs 16:33. This is all considered as part of God's Providential work around us. And so, does this mean there is nothing truly random in the universe around us? I don't know, but I'm just raising it as something we should consider.

 

Now back to my Christian friend, who believes God is totally in control of the cards while he gambles, and so some nights God blesses him, and on others he does not. And so, this friend is trying to earn extra money through gambling because my friend is a pretty good player. This is where my common sense (yes, sometimes I do have common sense) kicked in. I remembered reading one commentator who believed that gambling was a violation of the 8^th Commandment (Thou Shall Not Steal), because it is seeking unearned wealth. But this is easily enough rationalized away – because if a gambler is better than the other players, then they are technically 'earning' their winnings.

 

So let me try a different tack in showing that Gambling is sinful. Because gambling is a zero-sum game (one person wins, while the other person loses), it always means there is someone who benefits and the other loses. Would you consider our holy God as someone Who takes from some people, while taking from others. On what grounds would God do this? Is it done because one person is more righteous than the other, God being a cosmic Robin Hood, taking from those that don't deserve it, and giving it to those who deserve it? This is the deceptive track for those who might believe this – it causes one to believe in their self-righteousness. And if they lose, then they deserved it because of something bad that thy recently did. This isn't what Jesus taught, and so we should stay away from this kind of thinking. Instead, we are not to judge others as being worse sinners than us, but instead we are to repent of our sinful activities (see Luke 13:1-5 – story of the Tower that fell killing 18 people.)

 

No, God causes the rain to fall on saints and sinners alike, and so this rationale (of thinking that God wants to bless gambling Christians) seems especially poor to me. This leads me to explain how I was blessed in my studying about gambling. It turns out that Martin Luther himself came to my rescue when he says that gambling is simply unloving. Gambling reveals a greedy heart where we want gain for ourselves, while taking away from others. And so here are a few quotes that helped me to see the utter sinfulness and emptiness of gambling:

 

Someone Once Said …

•     A young gambler is sure to be an old beggar if he lives long enough.—Charles Spurgeon

•     Gambling: unnecessarily risking the possessions which God has entrusted to us in games of chance or skill in the hope of gaining something from our neighbor without giving him a fair service or product in return whether for the sake of profit or thrills.—John Mark

•     No one gambles with another in order to give away to the other what is his own (for he could do that without gambling), nor in order to lose what is his own, nor in order to seek the gain of the other man as though it were his own. This is why gambling is always contrary to love and is motivated by greed because a man seeks, to the harm of another, what does not belong to him.—Martin Luther

•     Horse sense is what keeps horses from betting on what people will do.—Oscar Wilde

•     The urge to gamble is so universal and its practice so pleasurable that I assume it must be evil.—Heywood Hale Broun, broadcaster

 

And now, here is what we are up against in America. Here are some of the statistics showing the dangers that come from Gambling:

• According to International Gaming and Wagering Business, Americans lost $50.9 billion in legal games in 1997, $27.2 billion of that in casinos and $16.6 billion in lotteries.
  
• The National Gambling Impact Study Commission reported in 1999 that:
  
• •     More than 20 million Americans have or could develop gambling problems.
  
• •     More than 5 million Americans are pathological or problem gamblers.
  
• •     More than 15 million Americans are at risk of becoming pathological gamblers.
  
• •     Over 1 million American teens engage in severe pathological gambling each year. (All of these quotes and stats come from Morgan, R. J. (2000). Nelson's complete book of stories, illustrations, and quotes (electronic ed.) (333). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
  

  
   

From what has been said above, I hope you will see the dangers of gambling, and that gambling is antithetical to everything that Jesus taught. Therefore, although there are not many Bible verses that specifically speak against gambling, it certainly is against some of the most important Biblical principles, including the principle of loving one's neighbor, while gambling only seeks their harm. And so, although gambling is so rampant in our society through lotteries, casinos, pull-tabs, and internet gambling sites, we need as Christians to stand up against this infestation, and discourage ourselves and others from getting involved in this un-loving activity. Amen!