I would like to know what is the Christian beef about gambling? I was raised in a secular “unchurched” home, and although my parents went to Las Vegas once a year perhaps, they were not gamblers per se.
When I was a child, I gambled a little, making bets, piching pennies, things like that. My parents and I sometimes went to a bluegrass show ran by mainly rednecks (I’m from Memphis) and us kids were pitching pennies for fun. Of course some Baptist/Pentecostal shut us down.
As an adult, I worked in casinos in Tunica, Mississippi for about five years. Casino gambling is a ripoff, especially roulette. The odds are always in the house’s favor.
Besides the Romans playing dice for Jesus’ robe, I don’t see any other negative aspects to gambling. So why?
Only the very disciplined gamblers win, and they are a scare breed. The rest of us either play for fun knowing we will lose, or kid ourselves into thinking we can win while losing the grocery money.
Well, some churches find gambling wrong because it competes with their bingo nights. Seriously, gambling is addictive for some people, and can ruin families with people who can’t control how much they spend, and blow the rent money, which is one reason why it is banned in many places. Of course, I don’t think we should protect people from themselves, and I don’t mind gambling at all.
Gambling is (or can become) a form of addiction, something that enslaves and controls the life of the addict. Many gamblers will never become addicted, and can enjoy the “fun” of gambling, but as the existance of Gamblers Anonymous testifies, for some people, it goes well beyond that.
Christianity is, at its root, about freedom - freedom from sin (and hence access to God/heaven), but also freedom from things that make life on this earth painful and tie us down.
This, for me, is the prime reason (there are others, the close relationship between gambling, drink and prostitution for example) for avoiding (or being very careful about my approach to) gambling - I do not want to become its slave. The danger of course is that you never notice the beginnings of any addiction - as the smoker will claim to be able to “give up any time I want to”, gamblers will deny that it has a hold over them, but the stories of people throwing away thier life savings do exist (Twoexamples).
Folks, these are all social arguments, not religious arguments. I’m sure we all appreciate the efforts of the various churches to make this a better world to live in, but those of us on the outside often get the impression that there is a religious (i.e. theological) motive for the stand a church takes.
I’m not sure this is what the OP intended, but is there a specific proibition against gambling that’s based on biblical interpretation? On other theological (not social) grounds?
Nope! My church freely admits that there is nothing in the Bible condemning gambling (or drinking for that matter). However, the church doesn’t “encourage” these activities as they can lead to addictive behavior. But among adults who have control over their own actions, there is nothing wrong with either activity, and a good church will support this stance.
grimpixie has it right. Gambling is like alcohol: in most people’s hands there is no problem. However, the compulsive gambler is a problem and often their spouses and children suffer as a result. Generally the negative social impacts of gambling outweigh any economic benefits of casinos.
A compulsive gambler is only a problem if he/she loses. A compulsive gambler that wins a lot of money is treated as something of a celebrity. Unlike drugs and alcohol, gambling can (rarely, but it happens) have a wonderful outcome from the behavior.
Unless you’re Catholic-then every night is bingo night.
But seriously, I think it could also be about “games of chance”, relying on “luck” instead of prayer?
I have heard religious people criticise gambling based on the following:
(a) The gambler is trying to get something without working for it, which is essentially attempting to steal.
(b) The odds are always in the house’s favor, so the people gambling will always (in the long run) lose. So the house is taking money unfairly, which is stealing.
The above does not apply, IMO, to the kind of gambling where there is no house take, like when folks play a game of poker together and it’s just a matter of the money changing hands among willing participants.
Personally, I don’t criticize people who go to casinos with a set amount of money, willing to spend that money in return for the fun that they have playing the games. Presumably this is not money that is really needed to pay the rent or buy food for the babies, etc. In that context it doesn’t seem that different to me from paying the same amount of money to see a show, or to buy something else one enjoys. But I really do think it’s immoral for a government agency to benefit from people’s weakness. Oh, and horse racing is o.k., too, because it’s fun to watch the animals.
The only really good argument for the morality or immorality of gambling is that it’s more about the trappings of gambling.
The stuff that comes with it.
Prostitution
Drunkenness
Fighting
and General immorality
I think the indian gaming casinos, or the riverboat casinos complete with childcare and a movie theater, nah, they’re clear of god’s anger.
I think any religious stance on gambling is like not eating shellfish cause the bible says so. A bit archaic, served a good purpose at the time, but we’ve evolved beyond that.
There are 23 references to “casting lots” (making choices based on random events - essentially gambling) in the Bible, mostly in the Hebrew Scriptures, although the choosing of an apostle to replace Judas is an interesting New Testament event involving the choosing of lots…
It’s interesting how we haven’t managed to evolve beyond drunkenness and adultery yet. :dubious:
Roulette has the second best odds in the house. Betting on red or black is nearly a 50/50 bet (made less so by those stupid 0 squares.) If you wanna play for a long time, Roulette’s good.
Craps is another great game to play house. Over the long term, if you lay on the pass and then back it up once the game goes On, you’ve got (statistcally) exactly a 50/50 shot. You should win as much as you lose, overall. It’s worth bearing in mind that, even at even odds, chances are the casino will take your money. Why? Cause it has inifinite resources. You can get unlucky for a few minutes, and while statistically you should be able to come right back up later, you might drop too low and be out of the game. That will never happen to the house.
Of course, the best payouts and odds come when you play in games against other casino patrons- like poker. But you dont make any friends, and you have to be more skilled than them to win out.
-C
That might be, but if it is, it probably shouldn’t be. In looking over
i found that a few of them said pretty much this:
Now, let me know if I’m reading too much into this, but it appears that the casting of lots was considered an official method to consult God for an an answer to a selection-type question. (It probably helped if someone godly was doing the casting.) After all, God could control everything, so he could put the ball in 00 (or whatever) if that resulted in the lamb/apostle that he wanted getting picked.
Yes, this boils out to “God wanted uncle Jim to lose his shirt”, but it appears that in the good old days, casting lots was (sometimes) practically a kind of prayer. The selection of Judas’s replacement by lots seems to bear this out.
Here in Ontario, both the federal and provincial governments take a percentage of the mutuel pools at the racetrack. According to the information in the back of the Woodbine program, Ontario gets 0.5% of the pool, and Canada gets 0.8%. I’m sure that other jurisdictions where racing takes place have a similar arrangement as well, so perhaps we can agree that governments do benefit monetarily from horse race gambling too.
And even in racing, there is a “house take,” since the track takes a cut off the top of the pool too. The amount depends of the type of pool it is (win-place-show, exactor, triactor, daily double, etc.); you can find details of the exact percentages in the program and in the Daily Racing Form.
I’m most familiar with the track, since that’s where most of my gambling activity takes place, but wouldn’t governments also benefit from casino gambling as well? Surely a casino would have to pay a government some sort of licence and/or permit fees to operate legally?
Oh, and I should address this too:
Have you ever tried handicapping a race card from the past performances in the Daily Racing Form? That’s hard work!
Spoons – I should have put a little smiley in there somewhere.
I know the gov’m’nt gets part of the take at a racetrack, too. I don’t really know how their percentage of the take compares to what they get from the casinos. Yes, here in NJ the state gets various fees from the legal Atlantic City casinos, plus AFAIK cut of the take.
I think the biggest tax on idiots is the state-run lottery; IMHO it’s really obscene. The odds against winning are astronomical, and the house rake off the top is very large. Sorry, I don’t have actual stats. That’s the one I feel bad about because I think the state is ripping people off. I wish we didn’t have a state lottery. But hey, if somebody else wants to pay some of my taxes for me, I guess that’s his choice.
Mostly I’m passing on info as to some of the reasons why gambling is thought by some to be “wrong.” I don’t think it’s wrong, but I don’t think it’s a good idea, and I don’t understand throwing away money on it.
Except for horse racing, which is fun I actually do go to the track about once a year with a group of friends. We bring coolers and sit in the shade in the picnic area. Some of us place bets, some don’t. When I do place a bet, I think it’s more fun to see if you “win” by watching a horse race than by scraping some shiny stuff off a card.
I’m curious about how much of this attitude that gambling is wrong is peculiarly American. You see, I keep hearing and reading arguments that gambling is immoral, especially when the issue of allowing slot machines at race tracks or riverboat gambling comes up, yet the daily paper has the odds and the spread for football games and other games, not to mention state lotteries.
I’m a devout Christian, but I can’t come up with a Bible-based arguement against gambling, any more than I can a Bible-based argument against taking drugs. Yes, some people gamble to excess; others drink to excess; others, I’m told may shop or do other things to excess. Me, sometimes I suspect I post to excess. Does that mean that gambling, drinking, shopping, or posting should be made illegal for all people because some are adversely affected by it?
I don’t mind admitting I like gambling occaisionally, and it can make a sporting event even more fun. I also put it roughly in the category of video games – I’m spending money having fun. It’s just that sometimes I don’t lose which also isn’t all bad. Then again, what offended me when my state got a lottery was that it paid 500 to 1 on a 1000 to 1 shot!
Seriously, gambling is addictive for some people, and can ruin families with people who can’t control how much they spend, and blow the rent money, which is one reason why it is banned in many places. Of course, I don’t think we should protect people from themselves, and I don’t mind gambling at all.
I actually do go to the track about once a year with a group of friends. We bring coolers and sit in the shade in the picnic area. Some of us place bets, some don’t. When I do place a bet, I think it’s more fun to see if you “win” by watching a horse race than by scraping some shiny stuff off a card.
Does that mean that gambling, drinking, shopping, or posting should be made illegal for all people because some are adversely affected by it?