The Christian and Gambling

by Dudley Ross Spears
via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 16 No. 2, June 30, 1990

More States in our Union are adopting state-operated lotteries to increase revenue. Every citizen of every state, especially Christians, must understand the issues involved. This is not being written to influence anyone politically but rather to urge readers to investigate some of the moral implications of state-operated gambling operations.

Many otherwise honest citizens, who would never think of gambling at a dice game, a poker or roulette table, think nothing of putting up a few dollars for lottery tickets. Rationalizing that the State benefits from lotteries and everything is a gamble anyway, the lottery provides a legal way of obtaining the results of the game tables in backrooms or private clubs. The threat that teachers’ already low wages will have to be cut if the lottery does not become legal is frequently added to flavor the alleged need for the lottery.

But a lottery is gambling, pure and simple. No matter who sponsors a lottery, the principle is the same. The World Book Encyclopedia defines a lottery as follows:

"LOTTERY is perhaps the most widespread form of gambling. In most lotteries, the gamblers buy numbered tickets. Duplicate numbered tickets kept by the seller are drawn at random, and the persons holding the matching tickets win prizes. Lotteries may also involve predicting sporting event results. Sweepstakes, pools, and rallies are forms of lottery." [Volume 12, page 413].

Most of our children use this standard reference work at some time or another during their school years.

There is hardly a question to raise as to the fact that lotteries are a form of gambling. The next question is, is gambling wrong? What does the Bible say about it? To my knowledge, the word gambling is not found in the King James Bible. Like many other issues, however, several biblical principles deal with it. Consider the following:

What is Gambling?

To understand the biblical principles, one must understand what gambling means. Farming is not a gamble, even though the enterprise is often risky. Investing in the Stock Market is not gambling. Borrowing money to start a business is not a gamble. And many more similar activities could be included in what gambling is not, even though some people often put these things in the category of gambling.

Gambling is defined clearly as "risking or betting something on the outcome of an event" [Reader’s Digest Great Encyclopedic Dictionary]. Gambling is placing a bet or a wager on anything with a chance or a risk. Most ex-sailors or people aboard a troop ship know that sailing the deep blue is risky. That is not a gamble but a calculated risk. However, the same people know what an "anchor pool" is. Some entrepreneurs divided a paper into 60 blocks, each representing a minute of the hour. Participants in the anchor pool paid a certain amount of money for one of the blocks. The ship’s log recorded the exact minute the anchor was dropped, and the owner of that minute/block won all the money on that card. The trip is risky, the precise moment the anchor drops is uncertain, and the money put into the anchor pool is the only gamble. The same applies to other risk events. I remember seeing several servicemen bet on the color of gum that would come from a gumball machine.

What is Wrong with Gambling?

The Bible teaches some things by principle. There are three principles that any form or degree of gambling violates.

1. The Principle of Love. Gambling has the wrong object for love. Paul wrote to Timothy that the "love of money is the root of all (every kind) of evil" (I Timothy 6:10). The love of the world is the principal motive for any gamble, and those who serve the true and living God are forbidden such love (I John 2:15-17). Taking from others in a game of chance is not the kind of love the Bible demands (Matthew 22:37; Romans 13:8-10). No one honestly believes that those who buy a lottery ticket are primarily interested in helping out the seller of lottery tickets, whether it is the State of Kentucky or some benevolent institution.
2. The Principle of Work. Those who honor God remember that it is the "laborer" who is worth his money (Luke 10:7) and that working with the hands in that which is good is acceptable (Ephesians 4:28). The gambler, to the contrary, works with cunning, chance, deceit, and often fraud to acquire money from others.
3. The Principle of Commerce. The Bible approves of some commercial enterprises. There is "buying and selling to get gain" (James 4:13-17), and this is exemplified in the case of Lydia, a "seller of purple" (Acts 16:14) and the virtuous woman, "a buyer" (Proverbs 31:16).

Investments are a legitimate means of commerce (Matthew 25:14-30). Farming is sanctioned (Matthew 13). All of these are basically honorable means of employment and gain. But there is no way gambling can be construed as an honorable occupation. The same is true of lotteries. It is time for a little history about our Commonwealth and the Lottery.

Lotteries in Kentucky (this writer’s home State) have a less than admirable track record. The first lottery in which the Commonwealth was involved also involved the Masonic Lodge. The Masons requested authority to run a lottery to construct the Kentucky Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons. The legislature passed the required authorization for them in 1795. They conducted the lottery one year later. The Masons appealed again for the same permission and, in 1814, obtained a grant to raise $30,000 for the consolidation of four lodges and the Royal Arch Chapter in a single Lodge Hall. The grand prize was $20,000. A doctor named Lewis Marshall of Woodford County held the lucky number, but when he tried to claim his winnings, the Masons gave him Kentucky Bank Notes nowhere near the worth of the amount promised. Dr. Marshall filed suit to be paid in gold. The Masons could only come up with half the prize and promised to pay the balance in ten years, adding 6 % interest. What they did with the money promised was never known.

After the Civil War, Kentucky became a fertile field for shysters selling all kinds of lottery tickets. Fraud and corruption became so rampant that the legislature passed a bill forbidding lotteries from outside the state. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the bill in Champion versus Ames in 1903 as a means "to guard the people of the United States from the pestilence of lotteries."

What is more interesting and appropriate for us today is the Constitutional Convention of 1890. To protect the citizens of our fair State from the "pestilence" of lotteries, the constitutional delegation considered adopting a prohibition against all lotteries as part of the Kentucky Bill of Rights. Had it not been for a religiously radical and over-enthusiastic representative from Louisville, possibly it would have been included in a section of the Bill of Rights, but it was only included in the "General Provisions," a part of our basic State constitution, and that is where it still stands today. Here is how it reads:

"Lotteries and gift enterprises are forbidden, and no privileges shall be granted for such purposes, and none shall be exercised, and no schemes for similar purposes shall be allowed. The General Assembly shall enforce this section by proper penalties. All lottery privileges or charters heretofore granted are revoked."

Did you notice—"all lottery privileges?"

A state-operated lottery will not solve the economic problems of any state in our Union. Every state that has legalized this form of gambling has learned that the increased need for law enforcement, the increased bureaucracy to administer it, and the additional regulations and laws necessary to regulate it are more costly than the anticipated revenue from the lottery.

A state lottery does not solve social problems; it creates more. The city of Las Vegas suffers the reputation of "Crime City, USA," largely due to the lure that legal gambling and limited legal prostitution present to organized crime syndicates. A State Lottery and an already legal limited pari-mutuel gambling on horse racing open the door to other and more vicious forms of corruption. If lotteries become legal in your state, as a Christian, you cannot participate in them and please the Lord. When a state does legalize this form of gambling, you can mark it down as a point in time when the morality of your State took an even lower dive.

We already have more problems in our country than we can handle. Marijuana, cocaine, alcohol, sexual misconduct, etc., are already at a peak. Instead of adding to an already bad situation, should not legislators seek ways to better conditions for improving morality? That seems much more intelligent than adding more of what has proven detrimental to society's moral fiber. (Much of the material used in this study came from the Public Library and The Kentuckian, in an article on Lotteries, by Thomas D. Clark, historian and former chairman of the University of Kentucky history department.)