What about Gambling?

"For years, our economy has depended almost exclusively on tourism and gaming [gambling], rather than by exporting goods and services. Three out of every four of our tax dollars are collected from sales and gaming taxes; taxes vulnerable to swings in the economy. … Implicit in this tax strategy was a belief that the revenues from gaming and tourism could keep pace with our growing and diverse population. Unfortunately, this strategy has failed. … My fellow Nevadans, the lesson from the last 20 years is clear; our revenue system is broken because it has relied on regressive and unstable taxes [from gambling]."
2003 State of the State Address, Gov. Kenny Guinn, Nevada

Gambling is an issue that attacks from a multiple front. It casts its destructive shadow on politics, local communities, schools, families, and even churches. Everyone pays when gambling comes in.

Here are a few conclusions contained in a report from the National Council on Problem Gambling, a government commission investigation into gambling:

“Nevada regularly reports the highest rate of suicide among all 50 states.”

“53.5 percent of identified pathological gamblers reported having been divorced, versus 18.2 percent of non-gamblers.”

“Individuals with gambling problems seem to constitute a higher percentage of the homeless population.”

“One domestic violence counselor from Harrison County, Mississippi, testified that a shelter there reported a 300 percent increase in the number of requests for domestic abuse intervention after the arrival of casinos.”

“Maryland Attorney General J. Joseph Curran, Jr. has likewise reported a linkage between expanded gambling and increases in domestic violence in numerous locales.”

“Children of compulsive gamblers are often prone to suffer abuse, as well as neglect, as a result of parental problem or pathological gambling. The Commission heard testimony of numerous cases in which parents or a caretaker locked children in cars for an extended period of time while they gambled. In at least two cases, the children died.”

“Local government becomes “a dependent partner in the business of gambling.”

“What has made it complex is the fact that along with the real benefits of gambling, come equally undeniable and significant costs. This Commission heard testimony about the growing numbers of individuals suffering from problem and pathological gambling, which often results in bankruptcy, crime, suicide, divorce, or abuse.”
http://govinfo.library.unt.edu/ngisc/reports/7.pdf
National Gambling Impact Study Commission Report Gambling’s Impacts on People and Places

I remember an old song my mother enjoyed called, “How much is that doggie in the window?” To get the doggie, a price had to be paid. Gambling is one doggie that has too high of a price tag. Gambling is expensive in many ways. More wives and children will be beaten, more family members will commit suicide, more families will declare bankruptcy, and more children will be abandoned because of gambling.

Will gambling give some benefit to the community? Just like poisoned water will quench the thirst of a thirsty man, but it’s the arsenic in the water that will kill him. The cost of drinking the water is the pain suffered from the poison it contains. Such is the case with gambling. Cool, clear, poisonous water.

This brings us to the question: Is gambling sin? What does the Bible have to say about gambling? Is “casting lots” the same as gambling?

When you can not directly find a topic in the Bible you have to do a little research. First inspect itsroots, what is generating the event, and the fruit, what comes as a result of the event.
What are the roots of gambling? Biblical Love, Joy, and Peace? NO. What draws people to the gambling tables is covetousness and greed. Every person is drawn to the casinos with the hope of coming home with more money than they took. James says:

“But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:14-15

Godliness can not be found in the root of gambling but what about the fruit of gambling? Compare the fruit of gambling to the fruit of the Spirit:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

Is there more love, joy, and peace in a community after the casinos arrive? No.

Now compare the fruit from gambling to the works of the flesh:

“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21

Secondly, is gambling found in the Bible? Yes. The only time we see gambling happening in the Bible is when the Roman soldiers used casting lots to divide the clothes of Jesus under the cross. Not a very spiritual event. Casting lots was used by pagans to gamble.

Is casting lots the same as gambling? No. Casting lots can be used to gamble just like a penny can be flipped to gamble but that is not the purpose of the object. Casting lots was used in both Old and New Testaments to discern God’s choice. It was used by both godly and ungodly people. The priests used lots to decide issues or to select the scapegoat. The sailors used lots to discover Jonah was the reason for the problems. God never instructed His people to use lots for gambling. Lots were always used to discover the mind of God on various issues.

The last time casting lots was used, it replaced Judas with Matthias. This was wrong because God had already chosen Saul (Paul) as the Apostle called out of due season to be the 12th Apostle. Lots can be misunderstood and misinterpreted. If the disciples would have let one of the lots represent no one, they would have been more accurate with their decision from casting lots. Either way there is never a case where lots were cast by God’s people to make a wager.1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says,

“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.”

When you are a new creature in Christ you change and become different from the world. You must exist in the world but you are not of the world. Greater is He who is in you than he that is in the world.