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Gambling "He that hastens to be rich hath an evil eye, compiled by Diane Dew |
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STATISTICS /FACTS One in 4 American men and 1 in 8 women plan to gamble in the next Super Bowl.
(Gallup poll, "Psychology Today") The average compulsive gambler has debts exceeding $80,000 (Dallas Morning News, 1/4/84) "To gamble is to take a calculated risk for monetary or personal gain."
(Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling). Legalized gambling increases illegal gambling by 300
percent. (Organized Crime Section of the Department of Justice) "Participation rates increase steadily and sharply as the number of legal types of gambling increases. Social betting more than doubles from 35% in states with no legal games to 72% in states with three legal types; the illegal gambling rate more than doubles from nine percent to 22%; and commercial gambling increases by 43%, from 24 to 67 percent." (The Final Report of the Commission on the Review of National Policy Toward Gambling, 1976) Getting killed by lightning is seven times more likely than winning a million dollars in a state lottery. (Harper's, July 1983) Only 40 cents of every lottery dollar goes to the state budget. Direct taxation costs only 1 cent on the dollar. Crime rates for counties with casinos are 8% higher than the crime rates of counties without casinos. (Las Vegas Sun, 6/17/99) Crime within 30 miles of Atlantic City rose by 107% in the nine years following the introduction of casinos to the area. (Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, Aug. 1991) The rate of compulsive gambling among teens is growing at twice the rate of that of adults. (Dr. Howard J. Shaffer, Director of the Harvard Medical School Center for Addiction Studies) Crime rates in casino communities are 84% higher than the national average.
(U.S. News & World Report, 1/15/96) Nevada ranked first in crime rates among the 50 states in both 1995 and 1996. (FBI Uniform Crime Report statistics) More money is spent on gambling than on elementary and secondary education. (Christianity Today, 11/25/91) "But ye who have forsaken the Eternal, ye who ignore his sacred hill, spreading tables to Good Luck, pouring libations to Fate, I make the sword your fate." Isaiah 65:11
"Thou shalt not covet." The Hebrew word for covet is chamad, defined in Brown, Driver and Briggs' lexicon as a "bad sense of inordinate, ungoverned, selfish desire." It is the same word used for "desire" in Genesis 3:6 - "when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired (chamad) to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat...."
Bible Study QUOTES ON GAMBLING Gambling: "Gaming corrupts our dispositions, and
teaches us a habit of hostility against all mankind." "The best throw at dice is
to throw them away." |
I. Get-rich-quick schemes are a hoax. A. They bring poverty, not wealth.
Prov 28:22 (cp. Prov 22:16) B. The divinely established means of "getting ahead" is by work.
Gen 2:15; 3:19
Ex 20:17 III. Gambling is destructive. A. Spiritually. It affects our walk with God.
Mat 6:25-34 2. True riches are spiritual and eternal.
Phil 4:19 "riches in glory in Christ" 3. We should look to God as our Source of supply:
Phil 4:19 4. Gambling expressly denies God's sovereignty and care.
Mat 10:30 Exo 20:17 6.
Christians are called to a walk of holiness (separation from the world). 7. Gambling destroys contentment.
I Tim. 6:6, 10
2 Cor 12:14 2. Gambling distorts our love for our neighbor, exploiting the most vulnerable members of society: the poor.
Phil 2:3-4 1 Corin 10:31-33
4. Gambling encourages stealing, which
increases court costs; stresses out marital relationships by burdening
finances ("He who is greedy for gain troubles his own house..." Prov 15:27); and forces
reliance upon public assistance, bankruptcy, etc.
Gen 2:15; 3:19 2. Gambling is rooted in greed, the love and craving for money, which is "the root of all evil."
Mat 6:31
3. Gambling is addicting. God wants us to be free!
Rom 8:21 |
HISTORY OF GAMBLING IN AMERICA: 1656 Card fiends in the Plymouth Colony were fined forty shillings (two pounds in 1661).[1] 1748 Benjamin Franklin helped organize a Pennsylvania lottery "to raise three thousand pounds for military supplies to defend Philadelphia against Frenchmen and Indians." 1765 The Stamp Act places a tax "upon every pack of playing cards and all dice... the sum of 1 shilling..." 1776 Congress organized a lottery of $5 million to rally a kitty for the war. [1] 1777 President Washington
issued an order forbidding "all officers... and soldiers... playing
at cards, or other games of chance... at this time of public distress
men must find enough to do, in service of their God and their country,
without abandoning themselves to vice and immorality." 1774-89 The Continental Congress issued orders to stop "extravagance and dissipation, horse racing, and all kinds of gaming or cock fighting."
1963 No state had a lottery. Only Nevada permitted casinos, though many
states allowed betting on horse or dog races. 1976 A national commission found 0.77% (1.1 million) of American adults were pathological gamblers.
1980 Commercial gambling casinos prohibited in every state except Nevada.
Only 13 states had lotteries. Americans spent $17 billion on legal commercial gambling. 1995 A study found 5.4% of Iowa's adults (110,000 residents) were lifetime pathological or problem
gamblers - up from 1.7% before riverboats came to the state in
1991.
Americans spent $550 billion on legal gambling in 1995 (a 3,200% increase in 20 years!) 1998 Over 40 riverboat casinos in Illinois, Missouri, Iowa. Nearly 50 riverboat and dockside casinos in Louisiana and Mississippi. Approximately 298 Indian casinos and bingo halls were operating in 31 states - up from 70 in 16 states in 1988. 48 states have legalized some form of gambling - lotteries, casinos, riverboat casinos, Indian casinos, video lottery machines, pari-mutuel betting (horse racing, dog racing, jai-alai). Today's Gambling News |
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