It was enough to make a grown man cry. The voice pouring out its story to a telephone Gamblers Anonymous volunteer was choked with tears. It was Friday, payday, and “Bruce” had cashed his check. But before he could get home, he had lost it all on what he thought was a sure win at the track. Was there any hope?
This broken man, his counselor, and many of the 8 to 10 million other Americans who are gambling addicts would probably agree with Saint Augustine: “The devil invented gambling.” They feel out of control, manipulated by an evil force.
They may indeed feel manipulated. But it is not just the Prince of Darkness who is to blame. Many get started gambling in the not-unwholesome environments of church basements, flag-draped VFW halls, or in their brightly lit neighborhood convenience stores. And the appeal to play is made by upright, God-fearing citizens who want to benefit charity or fund education.
Now, those who run “Las Vegas Nights” or sell lottery tickets are not demons, but the consequences of their actions may seem to some to be demonically inspired. Says Valerie Lorenz, executive director of the National Center for Pathological Gambling, “People don’t see the devastation and the despair and the pain that we see. The person out there in the community only sees that there’s a million-dollar lottery and thinks: ‘Let’s buy a few tickets and maybe I can win and pay back all my bills and take a nice vacation.’ That person does not think about the gambling addict, about the broken home, about the suicide that accompanies gambling addiction.”
That is a bleak picture. If we saw it daily, as Lorenz does, our passions and priorities might change, and the issues surrounding gambling might suddenly outrank many other causes.
Revisiting Pandora
From an ethical standpoint, gambling is not a single issue. Indeed, it can be thought of as three related questions: Should Christians gamble? Should gambling be legal? Should states sponsor and promote gambling?
This sequence of questions can be likened to the mythical Pandora’s box. Individual and charitable gaming is like Pandora’s fascination with the mysterious box. Legalized gambling is like lifting the lid. And when government sponsors gambling, one can only stand back and watch the evil influences escape into the world.
First, is it right for Christians to gamble?
To gamble is to put at risk something of value in the hopes of getting something worth far more. It usually involves artificially created chance (dice, roulette wheels, and cards, for example) or an event that is hard to predict (a horse race or a cock fight). And the winnings of a few are usually financed by the losses of the many.
Many conservative Christians were taught to stay away from dice and dog races, but the heart of the issue has nothing to do with dice or dogs. It has to do with dissatisfaction with what we have and a desire to take a shortcut from the path that God has prescribed for us to earn our keep. It has to do with, in the words of Bill Hybels, “the monster called ‘More.’ ” The popular pastor of the Chicago-area Willow Creek Community Church surveyed his Sunday-morning congregation and found that nearly 20 percent of the respondents had participated in some form of gambling in the previous six months. In response, Hybels offered these wise words:
Part of what motivates a gambler is the hope for a windfall without having to submit to the discipline and rigors of working and budgeting and saving.… There’s the draw of easy money associated with gambling, there’s the hope for the quick hit, and it might even be more complicated than that.… At the root of wanting a windfall in the first place, is a deep, gnawing dissatisfaction with your current level of provision that God has made for you in your life. Maybe underneath it all is a monster that lurks in the shadows of almost every person’s heart, the monster called “More.”
That monster called “More” can drive some people to petty theft or even grand larceny. It can drive others to risk all their energies on the elusive deal and starve their families for attention and love. But for an increasing number of Americans, that monster will drive them to gambling.
Whether that monster is stirred by a “You may have already won …” message from Ed McMahon or by the pot of gold on some lottery advertisements, it runs deep in the human psyche and runs counter to the teaching of Christ. Jesus taught his followers to be content, and he grounded that contentment in God’s good will toward his creatures. In Matthew 6, he urges us not to lay up treasure on Earth (which will inevitably be ruined or lost); he urges us not to try to serve both God and Mammon (for they are both jealous gods); and he urges us not to worry about our own food, drink, and clothing (for our heavenly Father knows our needs and will take much better care of us than he does the resplendent grass of the field).
Christian contentment is no psychological trick that tries to starve the monster by denying our legitimate needs and desires. Some ascetics (both Christian and Buddhist) have tried that route. But the creation is good, says God, and our interest in material things can be healthy. What we need is not denial, but trust. Paul learned that trust, and he maintained his ability to enjoy the good things of life, while at the same time, he learned how to do without them: “I have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound; in any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and want” (Phil. 4:11–12).
In addition to the More monster, some people are attracted to gambling by the sense of adventure and risk, the sheer excitement of the game. But where that ambiance of excitement prevails—whether in Las Vegas, Reno, Atlantic City, or Monte Carlo—so does the atmosphere of luxury, indulgence, and lack of moral restraint. Showgirls and glitter mask prostitution, drunkenness, and organized crime. While the excitement of playing a game is not inherently wrong, it, like any other thrill, can lead to excess and distract us from kingdom values. Somehow, casino glitz does not invite us to feed the hungry or house the homeless.
Few Christians boggle at the idea of risking a 29-cent stamp on the millions offered them by Ed McMahon. The consequences don’t seem very large. And our common sense tells us that these small risks will drive few people to poverty by instilling a compulsive need to spend their lives and substance in pursuit of a fantasy. But the closer we get to conventional gambling, the more we sense the stirrings of the monster More, the more we find we are in the kingdom of Mammon.
The values of the kingdom are often in radical opposition to those fostered by gambling. Those Christians who have kept away from lotteries and the gaming tables are offering their witness to the clear difference between the culture of God’s kingdom and the cultures of this world.
For Duke University ethicist Stanley Hauerwas, the gambling problem is bound up with the lack of distinction between the church and the surrounding culture. “When you say, ‘Are we going to allow gambling?’ ” Hauerwas asked CT, “who do you think the ‘we’ is? The problem is the conservative Christians who keep letting politicians who are doing this remain in the church. They ought to excommunicate them.” Added Hauerwas, “Tell people who are involved in gambling that as Christians they can’t do it. Otherwise, you’re just caught in pluralist politics that will ultimately destroy the church.”
Legalization
Even if Christians should themselves not gamble, the question remains, Should government allow gambling?
The answer to that question will depend on what one believes is the basic business of government. One theory says that government’s business is to build good citizens. If the state’s business is to inculcate virtue in its people, it will tend to restrict practices, like gambling, which can lead to immorality and wasted lives.
If, however, the state’s business is simply to protect the lives and liberties of its citizens, it may allow potentially dangerous practices (such as tobacco smoking) because it prizes the ideal of individual freedom above such statistically predictable realities as lung cancer and emphysema.
In the United States, we have balanced these two impulses, banning substances such as cocaine and heroin while permitting and regulating the sale of alcohol and handguns. We regulate those things because we know they are dangerous, but we permit them because we value liberty and believe in the wisdom of the people. That solution has been a reasonable one politically. But under the Christian command to love one’s neighbor, it is a tenuous balance.
What about gambling? Politically, it seems to be well entrenched. Yet everything that is legal is not necessarily moral. And anything that can ruin lives is a prime candidate for moral scrutiny. Just how does government-approved gambling impact people’s lives?
• Legalized gambling sidetracks a lot of money. In 1990, Americans placed legal bets worth over $286 billion. That is 5 percent of the nation’s gross national product. It is well over the $213 billion that was spent on elementary and secondary education, and nearly four times what was given to religious organizations. When Americans complain about their inability to pay their bills and educate their children, we wonder how many families’ lives would be enriched if legal gambling were to disappear?
• Legalized gambling handicaps a lot of people. There are now 8 to 10 million compulsive gamblers in the U.S., or about 3 to 4 percent of the population. One recent study of several states with legalized gambling bore this out, finding that over 4 percent of the adult population can be classified as “problem gamblers” or “probable pathological gamblers.” Those technical phrases stand for gut-wrenching realities often associated with poverty: marital strife, child abuse, job loss, homelessness, and hunger.
• Legalized gambling victimizes vulnerable members of our society—women, youth, and ethnic minorities. While over 90 percent of the members of Gamblers Anonymous are white males (and they are typically pushing 40), a New York State study found that 36 percent of problem gamblers are women, 32 percent are nonwhite, and one-third are under 30 years of age. Scripture commands us to pay extra attention to the welfare of those less able to look after themselves (Jas. 1:27).
Considering the impact gambling has on many lives, Christians who oppose legalized gambling are witnessing to more than their kingdom values. They are testifying to their concern for the victims of this fantasy industry.
Government Sponsorship
Beyond legalizing gambling, should the government be allowed to sponsor and promote gambling?
This is clearly a step beyond mere legalization. Many people reluctantly tolerate the sale of pornography in their communities because they believe the activity is covered under the constitutional guarantee of the freedom of expression. Yet they would be hard put to imagine the government getting into the pornography business. But by not only legalizing gambling but also sponsoring it, government has taken just that kind of leap.
When governments begin to sponsor gambling, one can only look on as the evils fly forth from Pandora’s box.
First, government sanctions lessen the stigma associated with gambling, leading to increased gambling addiction. Government sponsorship has sent a clear message to the populace, says the National Center’s Lorenz: “Many years ago it was seen as sinful or immoral; nowadays it is seen as an act of civic responsibility. If you buy your lottery ticket, if you do your charitable gambling, you are supporting your community, you’re raising money for the homeless, for education.”
That positive message has its impact on our youth as well. The percentage of southern California high-school students who participate in gambling in any form rose by 40 percent after that state’s lottery was introduced in 1985, a recent study found.
State-sponsored gambling also seems to break down the resistance of people who would not otherwise indulge. The number of gambling addicts has doubled during the eighties, the boom decade for state lotteries. And according to Duke University economists Charles Clotfelter and Philip Cook, “Increasingly the gambling clinics and hotlines are hearing from people whose primary or only gambling involvement is with the lottery.”
Second, government sponsorship of gambling has forced the states to create a market for their dubious product. This means advertising that is false. When billboards proclaim, “Play today, cash tonight,” or announce, “The shortest route to Easy Street,” they can be called misleading at best. According to Curt Suplee of the Washington Post, “Statistically you are seven times more likely to get hit by lightning than to become a millionaire in state lotteries.”
Beyond giving false promises, the ads promote materialism and the fantasy of a life of luxury without labor. This is particularly harmful to the poor, who are heavily targeted by lottery advertising. Apparently that strategy is effective. Ten percent of those who play the lottery account for 50 percent of the sales, and many of them are poor; a New Jersey study found that more than one-third of families with annual incomes of less than $10,000 spend one-fifth of their incomes on lotteries. And according to Will Willimon, dean of the chapel at Duke University, a study of the Maryland lottery showed that people earning less than $10,000 annually buy more tickets than any other income group. Thus lotteries used to fund education and other public projects are actually a regressive form of taxation, placing the biggest burden on those least able to pay.
Third, the economic and social side effects of state-sponsored gambling are greater than anything states are reinvesting in the common good. “We looked at the economic impact [of problem gambling],” Valerie Lorenz told CT. “What’s the cost of lost work productivity? Of monies that are stolen or embezzled or state taxes that are not paid? [In the state of Maryland] that comes to $1.5 billion.” Incidentally, the Maryland State Lottery netted less than one-fourth that amount—$335.3 million—in fiscal 1990. That is hardly a good bargain, considering the human anguish involved.
Besides costing states nearly as much as they raise, the lotteries’ effectiveness as a source of education funds should be questioned. California public-school superintendent Bill Honig says that for every $5.00 the lottery gives to the schools, it takes away $4.00. “The public is now reluctant to pass education bond issues because they think we’re floating in lottery money,” Honig says in Fortune. Lotteries may not increase state funds for education; often they only free up other funds in the state budget.
Pandora’s box is open. The evils of gambling have escaped. But as in the myth of old, hope remains. Christians are a people of hope, and they live as if God’s kingdom is possible in the present moment. We should therefore work to restrain and alleviate the pervasive influences of the gambling industry. Lotteries have a life cycle. And some states, already suffering from the public’s waning interest, are pressing new forms of gambling on their citizens. Eventually, the gambling market will reach its limits. And Christians need to be ready to act.
Eugene H. Peterson is pastor of Christ Our King Presbyterian Church, Bel Air, Maryland, and author of A Long Obedience in the Same Direction (InterVarsity) and Answering God (Harper & Row), both of which are about the Psalms.
