I Think I Can...Gamble

I. What Do Supporters Say Are the Benefits Of Casino Gambling?

II. What Are The Costs of Casino Gambling?

TO INDIVIDUALS

CRIME

REDUCED WORK PRODUCTIVITY AND JOB LOSS

DEBT

BANKRUPTCY

TO FAMILY MEMBERS

TO SOCIETY

III. What Does The Bible Say?

1. God is sovereign in the matter of human events yet gambling trusts in chance and luck.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. ESV

2. We are encouraged to work and use our possessions for the greater good yet gambling embraces something-for-nothing expectations.

For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. ESV

3. We are to be careful stewards and generous givers of our resources, yet gambling encourages irresponsibility, selfishness, and disregard for the well-being of others, particularly in the areas of family welfare and support for God’s work.

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. ESV

But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. ESV

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, "He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." ESV

4. We are to resist materialism and covetousness; yet gambling is the very essence of those two conditions.

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"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's." ESV

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."

5. Christ taught the two greatest commandments is love for God and a deep and abiding love for other people.

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But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?" And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." ESV

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet," and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. ESV

6. Gambling is a predatory business, devouring the weakest and most vulnerable and desperate among us; it is the opposite of loving neighbor as self as scripture teaches.

7. We must see that justice and concern for the well-being of the disadvantaged and poor yet our failure to oppose gambling schemes is a lost opportunity to protect the vulnerable and prevent their exploitation.

Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked." ESV