In the light of a recent federal government study that urges a moratorium on legalized gambling, and the fact that citizens of Alabama will soon be voting on this issue, we decided to devote this entire issue to the subject of gambling. Fact: the Southern Baptist denomination is the largest in Alabama and it is highly reflective of southern religious culture. Fact: the Southern Baptist and most other denominational leaderships have clearly opposed all forms of legalized gambling. Nevertheless, Alabama citizens recently elected a governor almost entirely on the basis of a single issue that he called: the education lottery (i.e., a lottery to generate funds dedicated solely to education). Clearly, many religious people are very confused on this issue.

This confusion results from arguments presented by gambling interests. Some people will get very rich if further gambling is legalized in the state. (They are not gambling!) If you have any doubt about this, go into a large casino the next time you have a chance. Look at all of the expensive high-tech machines, the luxurious settings, and all of the facilities and employees. Ask yourself: who owns all of this? Then ask yourself: who paid for all of this? The losers who paid for it obviously do not own it. Neither do the people of the state.

What about the stock market? One of the things that lottery proponents want us to believe is that we are all gamblers anyway. Most citizens have their retirements invested in the stock market. Isn’t that gambling? NO!!! There are many differences between purchasing stock and purchasing a lottery ticket. 1. When you purchase shares of stock, you own a part of a company. If this company prospers, you prosper. It is not evil, per se, to take risks; but it is always evil to benefit at the expense and the weakness of others. 2. If the company that you purchase makes money no one else has to lose. In lottery gambling, if you win, you know that thousands and thousands of poor people are out their grocery money in order to make you rich. This is absolutely NOT the case with investing — when you invest you put people to work. The money that you make comes from goods and services that people buy and enjoy, not because they were duped into buying lottery tickets. 3. Investing, even in a risky venture, starts some company or enables that company to expand its operations, thus putting people to work and expanding our economy by producing benefits to society, which is generally good (Titus 3:14).

Gambling reduces the money for such investments by channeling enormous losses to politicians, who only spend what is leftover after the "overhead" and gambling interests get their shares. If jobs are created, they will not produce any benefits to society. This lost productivity could be satisfying real needs. Since no real wealth is created, the lottery is just a hidden method to transfer wealth from those who are least able to afford it to politicians and gambling interests. Most voters who are duped into supporting it are the very ones who will pay most in their vain quest for wealth. To levy a fair tax would be honest, moral, and much less costly. But that would not be politically marketable. It is much more effective to promise people something for nothing. This promise is a lie (Rev. 22:15).

Money does not justify sin. But is this something for nothing? Lottery money in California was divided in this fashion: for every $1.00 taken in by the lottery 10 cents went to the store that sold the ticket; 30 cents went to oil the machinery of the lottery; 30 cents went to schools; 30 cents went to patrons as winnings. Thus, for every dollar taken out of the productive sector of the economy, society gets 30 cents in return. This means it would take $500 million a year out of our economy to raise $150 million for the school system. To keep things simple, let's just say it would take about $400 million. There are only a little over 4 million people in Alabama (about 1 million families). So the cost is about $400 per family per year.

Given that many of us are not going to participate, either for religious or common sense reasons, those households who do participate will have to contribute well over the $400/year to get the promised $150 million. How much of this will come straight out of welfare and unemployment checks? Who is really paying this bill? When children do not get fed and there is not enough money at the end of the month to pay the electrical and heating bills, who will be called upon to foot the bills? So even if we elect not to play in this crazy game, honest taxpayers will still have to pay up. In addition, the costs of gambling addiction will easily run into the tens of millions when we measure it in terms of lost productivity and ruined lives.

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"Life is a gamble, so gambling cannot be sinful."

but Paul stated (1 Cor. 6:10) that ...

Covetous in this context is referring to those who are "(eager) to have more" i. e., to have what belongs to others; hence, "greedy of gain, ..." <1 Cor. 5:10-11; 6:10; Eph. 5:5> (from Vine's Expository Dictionary). This is the exact motivation for gambling, and the bible clearly condemns it. Those who argue that "life is a gamble" make the word meaningless in an attempt to confuse. Unlike gambling, legitimate business risks can and often do produce wealth for everyone.

Covetousness brings about its own set of consequences. One is the addictive nature of gambling. It has been estimated that the cost of this problem alone to society (bankruptcies, additional government assistance, etc.) more than offsets any financial gains that legalized gambling could produce. Those who have faith in God’s way can see clearly that the states that are depending upon this vice to fund their programs will have to pay a dear price when these sources dry up. Any system of revenue generation based purely on greed (as opposed to the generation of real wealth) will ultimately collapse of its own weight. It is a house of cards that looks good for a while, just like many pyramid schemes. But history shows that the more effort that we put into non-productive (in this case, counterproductive) enterprises, the quicker our society will not be able to meet its basic needs.