GAMBLING VERSUS BIBLE PRINCIPLES

  1. Gambling Defined
  2. Common Questions Concerning Gambling


It is often asked whether gambling is morally right or wrong, according to Bible principles. Twenty-six states presently have a state lottery. States market it as a "voluntary tax" to help raise state revenue. Pari-mutuel gambling is legal in thirty-five states. Many see it as a quick and easy way to hit it rich. A 1982 Gallup Poll showed 82% of Americans favored some form of legalized gambling and over 60% have gambled in some form.

Gambling has been around for awhile. In Crete, a gambling board from about 1800 B.C. was discovered. Ancient Babylonians used headless arrows for making wagers. The Jewish Talmud excluded the gambling dice player and pigeon racer from testifying in court, since they had an unreliable reputation. Early Christians faced the problem of gambling. In the second century A.D., Tertullian wrote, "If you say you are a Christian when you are a dice player, you say what you are not, because you are a partner with the world."

This tract will: (1) define gambling and (2) show how it conflicts with Bible ethics. Gambling is not specifically dealt with in the Bible, although we read that the soldiers that crucified Jesus cast lots for His outer cloak (John 19:24). There is no verse that says, "Thou shalt not gamble." However, the Christian should not ask, "What's wrong with it?", but better still, "What's right with it?" The Christian should act to bring glory and honor to God in all he does (1 Cor. 10:31). The Apostle John writes, "All unrighteousness is sin" (1 John 5:17). If the act of gambling cannot be shown to be in harmony with what is right in and of itself, then it is unrighteousness. Such is sinful because it implicitly violates New Testament principles of righteous behavior. The NT does not specifically prohibit arson, polygamy or wife-beating, but each is wrong because it implicitly violates NT teaching. Paul, in condemning the works of the flesh in Galatians 5:19-21, ends by listing the sweeping category of "such like." Mature Christians should "have their senses trained to discern good and evil" (Heb. 5:14), by knowing when a specific action violates a general Bible principle.

GAMBLING DEFINED

Gambling can be defined as "wagering something of value on the chance outcome of an uncertain event." A lottery is "a game of chance in which people buy numbered chances on prizes, the winning number being drawn by lot." A raffle is "a lottery in which a number of person buys a chance or chances to win a prize." There are 3 basic elements of gambling: (1) an uncertain, arbitrary event, (2) the wager (something of value like money) that is deliberately chanced on a particular outcome, and (3) a winner and a loser. The winner wins at the direct loss of the other gambler(s). When all of these three elements exist, then you have gambling.

Note that merely taking a risk is not gambling. People say, "Life is a gamble." No, life entails risk. Crossing the street may involve a risk, but it is not a gamble, unless you wager money with someone on it. So, what are the Bible principles against gambling that show it wrong?

1. Gambling is Greedy. The Bible teaches against greed and covetousness. Jesus warns, "Beware and be on your guard against every form of greed" (Luke 12:15 NASB). Gambling appeals to "the love of money" (1 Tim. 6:9-10), which is the root of all sorts of evil. Covetousness [Greek, pleonexia, from pleon (more) and echo (to have)] is defined as an inordinate, insatiable desire to have more material things. Such greed is idolatry (Col. 3:5). The gambling industry's success depends upon the material greed of men. "A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth, and does not know that want will come upon him."(Proverbs 28:22).

2. Gambling is Selfish. Gamblers win at the direct economic loss of others. The purpose of gambling is to satisfy self at the expense of others. This is contrary to love. "Love...does not seek its own" (1 Cor. 13:5). "Love does no harm to a neighbor" (Rom. 13:10). Gambling violates the golden rule. "Just as you want people to treat you, treat them in the same way" (Lk. 6:31). A gambler violates the golden rule; he seeks to do to another person what he himself does not want the other person to do to him.

A gambler may win at the loss of one who can least afford it. A disproportionate number of lottery players are the very poor, who take food out of their children's mouths in the elusive hope of winning. One study found that the poor bet approximately three times the amount wagered by persons in middle-income and upper income areas (State Legislators Magazine, October 1981). In 1976 the Dallas Times Herald reported of a pawn shop owner who had patrons who sold their artificial limbs, in one case a glass eye, and pulled out their gold teeth with pliers to hock them for gambling money. "A Maryland study found that the poorest one-third of the state households bought half of all weekly lottery tickets....Another study concluded that the lotteries in Connecticut and Massachusetts were equivalent to a state sales tax of over 60 percent on lower-income groups" (Christianity Today, July 10, 1987).

3. Gambling is Contrary to Honest Work and Responsible Stewardship. "Gambling violates the principle of fair return for labor and investment, and the ethics of stewardship and work" (D. N. Peel, Encyclopedia of Biblical & Christian Ethics, p. 165). "Let him who steals steal no longer; but rather let him labor, performing with his own hands what is good" (Eph. 4:28). God commanded man to work for a living in honest labor, by that which is morally good and productive (Gen. 2:15; 2 Thess. 3:10-13; Prov. 14:23). Gambling appeals to laziness, not honest productive labor. It violates the Bible work ethic. Gambling does not produce an economic exchange of goods or services. The winner is not remunerated for providing useful goods or services. How can we teach our children "there ain't no free lunch" and the value of work (Lam. 3:27), when gambling teaches otherwise?

Gambling worships at the altar of Lady Luck and fans the elusive hope of getting something for nothing. Israel was condemned long ago in Isaiah 65:11 for worshipping "Fortune" (Hebrew, Haggad) and "Destiny" (Hamni), the Syrian gods of good luck and of fate. A Christian should not look to luck or fate to provide his material needs. We trust in the sovereign providence of our heavenly Father to supply our "daily bread", as we serve Him foremost and work honestly (Matt. 6:11,31-33; 2 Cor. 9:10; Phil. 4:19; Heb. 13:5-6).

All material goods on earth ultimately belong to God (Psa. 24:1; 50:10f; 89:11; 104:24; 1 Cor. 10:26). We should use and enjoy them as a grateful steward (1 Tim. 4:3-5; 6:17-19; Lk. 16:10-12; 2 Cor. 8:8-10). A responsible steward must faithfully use what has been discharged to his trust (Lk. 12:42; 1 Cor. 4:2). The prodigal son foolishly squandered his inheritance (Lk. 15:13). Throwing hard-earned money away on the contrived, artificial chance of gambling is a foolish use of our material prosperity; it not responsible stewardship. "He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, but he who pursues vain things lacks sense" (Proverbs 12:11).

4. Gambling is Stealing By Mutual Consent. Stealing is taking that which belongs to another. W. E. Bierderwolf observed, "Gambling bears the same relationship to robbery that dueling does to murder. One man will meet another in a dark alley and take his life at the end of a pistol, and you call it murder; two men will meet each other in an alley and agree to shoot each other until one or both fall dead, and you call it dueling. But the only difference is that in the first case there is one murderer, and in the second case there are [potentially] two. One man will meet another in a dark alley and take his money at the end of a pistol and you call it robbery; two men will meet each other round a table and agree to take each other's money with dice or cards, and you call it gambling. But the only difference is that in the first case there is only one robber and in the second case there are two" (quoted in Christianity Magazine, September 1990, p. 10). "Better is the poor who walks in his integrity, than he who is crooked though he be rich"(Proverbs 28:6).

5. Gambling is Highly Addictive. The Christian exercises "self-control in all things" (1 Cor. 9:25; Gal. 5:23). There are about 500 local chapters of Gambler's Anonymous. There are over 6 million compulsive gamblers in the U.S., and it is a growing problem. Walter Read, Chairman of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission, said in 1984, "Fifteen years ago there were [almost] no women and no teenagers in Gamblers Anonymous. Today there are twenty percent teenagers and twenty percent women." The Council on Compulsive Gambling reports that the average compulsive gambler owes $43,158 and made their first bet by age 13. The Christian is to shun anything so dangerous, to "lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us" (Heb. 12:2). Gambler's Anonymous urges its members to not even bet on who will buy cokes, etc. Just ask Pete Rose the harm in starting out making "little bets." "He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows frivolity will have poverty enough!"(Proverbs 28:19 NKJV).

6. Gambling is Associated with Worldliness. Christians are to "take thought for things honorable in the sight of all men" (Rom. 12:17) and "to abstain from every form of evil" (1 Thess. 5:22). We should "be blameless and innocent...above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation" (Phil. 2:15-16). Gambling has a dishonorable track record, and it is often associated with the worst evil elements in society. It is not above reproach. Jesus said a corrupt tree can only bring forth corrupt fruit (Matt. 7:17f). If the fruit is bad, then the root must be bad. Nevada legalized all types of gambling in 1931. Since then, Nevada has one of the highest crime rates per capita of any state in the U.S. Las Vegas has one of the highest murder rate per capita of any city in the U.S. Also, U.S. News & World Report in 1983 reported, "Since the advent of gambling in 1978, the crime rate per capita in the Atlantic City, New Jersey, area has tripled." Professor George Sternlieb, director of urban policy research at Rutgers University, did a comprehensive report on the impact of legalized gambling in Atlantic City from 1978 to 1984. He states, "Atlantic City is now the murder and crime capital of the Northeastern United States. And the crime rate keeps soaring." In 1985 the President's Commission On Organized Crime state, "Gambling is second only to drug smuggling as a source of income...gambling provides organized crime with the money it needs to flourish." George Washington said gambling "is the child of avarice, the brother of indignity, the father of mischief." For the Christian "to be above reproach," we must stay clear of the worldly practice of gambling.

COMMON QUESTIONS CONCERNING GAMBLING What about "innocent bets"? It's not the amount that makes gambling wrong, but it is the principle which violates Bible principles that makes it wrong. It's just as wrong in principle to steal $1 as it is to steal $1,000,000. Such thinking is behind the rationalization that excuses "little white lies." Lying is still lying and gambling is still gambling.

What about if a lottery or raffle is for a good cause? Is this justified gambling? This is the age-old fallacy that the ends justifies the means or "let us do evil that good may come" (Rom. 3:8). Jesse James robbed trains, but he supposedly gave some of the money to poor farmers to help them pay off their mortgages. This was "thoughtful," but what he did was still stealing and therefore wrong.

Is farming or the stock market gambling, because they involve risk? Such is not unnecessarily contrived risk, on which wagers are made. A farmer takes a calculated, not artificial risk, in order to produce things necessary to life. A farmer doesn't seek to gain at the direct loss of others. If he has a good year, all stand to gain from his work. If he has a bad year, buyers stand to lose. Buying and selling in the stock market to get gain is not wrong (cf. Ja. 4:13-15). Receiving payment for allowing someone to use your money as working capital is an honest economic principle (Matt. 25:14-30). In the stock market, someone buys stock in a company, which is exchanging his money for something of value. It's value may increase or decrease, depending on its economic performance of the company. Such is not due to artificial or contrived chance. In economic gain, when one profits, all profit by the exchange of goods or services. "In farming and in business, one attempts to remove the element of chance as much as humanly possible, the objective in true gambling is exactly the opposite" (op. cit. Peel).

What about doorprizes or sweepstakes? Companies give away prizes in a drawing, which is used as a form of advertising to promote their business' goods or services. There is no risk created, nor is there a wager on the outcome. The prize is a gift.

What about athletic contests where there are winners and losers? It is gambling only when you bet money on the outcome. Athletes are rewarded for achievement and skill. Nothing is taken away from those who lost from what they already had, but the winner gains recognition for his skill.

Is gambling O.K. for the Christian? Don't bet on it! Gambling is deceptive. Its allurement looks good and makes many promises, but it is a liar. Gambling is not in harmony with Bible principles of righteousness. We must be wise enough to apply Bible principles to know gambling is wrong. Don't let the "everyone's doing it" syndrome dull your conscience in knowing right from wrong.

If you have any Bible questions, write us at WFrankWalton@juno.com.


[ Home Page | Sermon Tapes | Bulletin Articles | Study Materials | Bible Question? ]

Web pages and graphics are Copyright ©1996-1998 Northside Church of Christ - All rights reserved.
Bible tracts & articles are copyrighted by their respective owners.
Questions or problems regarding this web site should be directed to the Webmaster