True story for anyone’s gambling lesson:<\/p>\n
There is a man at the Texas City church of Christ named Marlin Ridenour. He works for the City of Galveston and oversees the water department.<\/p>\n
The year the Texas State Lottery commenced in 1991, one of the employees wrote on a whiteboard a little table tracking lottery winnings of employees. Any employee could put their name on the board and track to see who won the most money. Six people signed up and tracked how many tickets they bought. When they won, they added money. When they lost, they subtracted the costs of the ticket.<\/p>\n
Marlin put his name up there too. He bought 0 tickets made $0 dollars and lost $0. After about 10 months of tracking … HE WON<\/strong>!!! With $0.<\/p>\n Finally, a guy who was in the negative by about $400 erased the whole board in disgust.<\/p>\n You would think it would have taught everyone a lesson, but it didn’t. They still play and he still doesn’t. He probably has a net worth more than the other five employees combined.<\/p>\n Lottery = Tax for foolish people<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" David Osteen via Pleonast True story for anyone’s gambling lesson: There is a man at the Texas City church of Christ named Marlin Ridenour. He works for the City of Galveston and oversees the water department. The year the Texas State Lottery commenced in 1991, one of the employees wrote on a whiteboard a little…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[815],"class_list":["post-26897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-gambling"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":14810,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/gambling\/","url_meta":{"origin":26897,"position":0},"title":"Gambling","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Colossians 3:1-10 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Gambling is now rampant in our nation \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Not too long ago, the only gambling available were raffle tickets, bingo games at the Catholic Church, and casinos in La Vegas, Nevada. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0No longer! Gambling is everywhere: at the gas station, at the corner market, even at my\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Sermon"","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54437,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/not-what-they-told-you-gambling\/","url_meta":{"origin":26897,"position":1},"title":"Not What They Told You – Gambling","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Proverbs 28:19-22 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Gambling is not a new problem \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But it has become a big business. Every state in the United States has some form of legal gambling \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Though Nebraska is the least state addicted to gambling, it still exists (the next lowest are Alabama,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":85664,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-christian-and-gambling\/","url_meta":{"origin":26897,"position":2},"title":"The Christian and Gambling","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 15, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Dudley Ross Spears via\u00a0Sentry 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":46764,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-dont-gamble-so-what-should-i-do-with-gifts-of-lottery-tickets\/","url_meta":{"origin":26897,"position":3},"title":"I don’t gamble, so what should I do with gifts of lottery tickets?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 21, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My fianc\u00e9e was given lottery tickets at work. We share the same stance on the principles of gambling. My family also likes to give lottery tickets for Christmas. This is my first Christmas being a member of the Lord's church. How would you suggest Christians handle gifts like that?\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20751,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-disagree-with-is-gambling-sinful\/","url_meta":{"origin":26897,"position":4},"title":"I disagree with ‘Is Gambling Sinful?’","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 6, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I am a 16-year-old boy. I've grown up in the church and I hope to get a degree in Biblical and Religious Studies when I graduate college. I feel that I am more intelligent and mature than most boys my age. Having said this, I disagree with \"Is Gambling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14799,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-gambling-sinful\/","url_meta":{"origin":26897,"position":5},"title":"Is Gambling Sinful?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 4, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by T. Sean Sullivan Are you familiar with, or have you ever heard any of these terms: Raffle, bingo, chances, scratch n\u2019 win, lottery, or gaming? Have you ever made a \u201cwager\u201d on the outcome of a sports event? The Super Bowl is coming up in a couple of weeks.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26897\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}