Gambling

Look at any advertisement for gambling, and it seems fun, exciting, and easy to win. The reality is much less promising.

When gambling, one can win or lose money or possessions through “games of chance.” Gambling takes many forms: bingo, lotteries, slot machines, roulette, dice, card games, betting, and more. With institutionalized gambling, games are designed so that a single player has a very small chance to win and a huge probability of losing, ensuring that the gambling establishment makes a steady and substantial profit. Even when gambling is institutionalized and legal, like a national lottery, the odds of winning a top prize remains extremely low, such as 1 in 15,000,000, or even 1 in 250,000,000.

Because gambling can be so addictive, people may stay in the game despite continuous losses, counting on the next round of play to make up for everything they’ve lost so far. Compulsive gamblers may spend all they have and then borrow to gamble more. But, according to math probability, one would need to play hundreds of thousands or even millions of times to win the large prizes, and still winning would not be guaranteed.

Though the Bible does not specifically mention gambling, it condemns the love and desire for money that gambling feeds on. Ecclesiastes 5:10 warns us, “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase. This also is vanity.”

God has given each of us abilities to be productive members of society and of the body of Christ. Gambling seeks to bypass this process while preying on those who can least afford to spare the cash. The Book of Hebrews assures us, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you’” (Heb. 13:5, NIV).

For a deeper understanding of the issue involved, we suggest people go to the following link: https://www.adventist.org/en/information/official-statements/statements/article/go/-/gambling/