SUNDAY SERMON: Thin line between harmless and addictive gambling

Many people have been asking about the morality of gambling. What they have in mind are the cell phone wagers placed on football games. A few people win. The number of big losers is alarming. If all the advertising shows anything, it seems to say: Need some quick cash? Start a gambling company.

What is a Christian supposed to make of all this? Is gambling good or evil? Should we be telling our children and telling ourselves that those who gamble are ruining their lives?

The first thing to be said may not sound precise, but I think you’ll understand. There’s gambling and, then, there’s gambling. Not to be too dramatic, but compare two spouses having a disagreement about the family budget and two countries bombing each other with weapons of mass destruction.

Is there anything wrong with a husband and wife disagreeing with each other from time to time? Certainly not. It just depends on how they do it.

HARMLESS BETTING

If they become bitter and resentful — if their disagreement becomes nasty and they begin to fight — something is wrong. But the mere fact of disagreeing is not wrong.

If a group of friends wants to get together for a card game like Bridge and they find it fun to bet a few pennies (or shillings or whatever), I don’t see any harm in that at all. I have known many Christian families who used to do that sort of thing. The couples had a wonderful evening together.

The sports betting is different, at least whenever people put a lot of money at risk with the hope of getting rich quick. Remember these words from the Book of Proverbs: “A trustworthy person will be overwhelmed with blessings, but no one who tries to get rich quickly will go unpunished.”

ADDICTION

Losing all your money on gambling is the punishment.

Some people claim that sports betting is similar to investing a pile of money in the stock market. Huge wagers in sports betting differ from business investments in several crucial ways.
Cell phone gambling — and casino gam­bling as well — is a zero sum game (I can only win if some­one else loses); whereas investment is meant to be a win-win scenario.

Investment implies engaging in an activity that serves a useful social purpose (buying some vehicles to start a transport business); whereas gambling does not.

Finally, unlike investment, sports betting tends to be addictive. Addiction happens any time someone loses lots of money and keeps making bets even when he sees clearly that his gambling habit is doing harm to himself and others.

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