Issues Tearing Our Nation's Fabric The Center for Reclaiming America

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Gambling
Chapter Eight

In 1995, Rep. Frank Wolf of Virginia introduced a bill in the United States House of Representatives seeking authorization for a blue ribbon panel to look into the impact of gambling on American society. In his opening remarks, Congressman Wolf recited some unsettling facts. Though gambling was prohibited in every state at the turn of the century, today 37 states have lotteries, 23 states allow casino gambling, and projections suggest that by the year 2000, 95 percent of the entire population will be within a four-hour drive of a gambling casino. In 1993, according to a report quoted in U.S. News & World Report, more Americans made more trips to gambling casinos than to major league baseball parks.

Studies of the financial impact of gambling on American cities and towns reveal that wherever wagering is legalized, capital resources will be transferred from savings and investments to gambling. Despite the fact that gambling creates no products and makes no commitments to citizens, three-fourths of Americans regularly participate in some form of wagering. Unfortunately, gambling thrives not on winners, but losers, and its tragic legacy is one of ruined lives, broken homes, shattered dreams, and blighted communities.

Despite the facts, state and local officials looking for an economic windfall continue to invite casinos into their neighborhoods, seemingly blind to the problems that always come when gambling is legal. "Income spent on gambling is not spent on movies, clothes, recreation services or other goods or services," said Rep. Wolf. "Gambling cannibalizes other businesses. For example, the number of restaurants in Atlantic City declined from 243 in 1977, the year after casinos were legalized, to 146 in 1987."

Because of crime associated with casino gambling, the state of New Jersey spends nearly $60 million each year to police and monitor the casinos of Atlantic City. The year after gambling was legalized, Atlantic City’s annual police budget had to be tripled, while population declined 20 percent. In three years, from 1977 to 1980, Atlantic City went from 50th in the nation in per capita crime to first. Between 1977 and 1990, crime in that city rose 230 percent. The American Insurance Institute estimates that 40 percent of all white collar crime is gambling related.

The cost of gambling includes not only the regulatory and economic costs, but also lost productivity, direct and indirect crime costs, and social costs, such as suicide, violence, and family disintegration. A study of financial liabilities accumulated by gamblers found that the typical addict is from $53,000 to $92,000 in debt. Gambling debts in New Jersey alone exceed $514 million per year. This debt, in turn, pushes compulsive gamblers into forgery, theft, embezzlement, drug dealing, and property crimes. Congressman Wolf found that the insurance fraud directly attributable to gambling exceeds $1.3 billion per year.

The Social Costs

Several recent studies show that state lotteries prey on those least able to afford the habit. A California study showed that just 18 percent of the population bought 71 percent of the state’s lottery tickets, and those who bet most heavily tended to be poor, less educated, and black. Researchers at Duke University found that the poorer the household, the greater the percentage of income devoted to gambling and lotteries.

A government task force in the 1970s concluded that those in the lowest income brackets lost more than three times as much money to gambling (as a percentage of their incomes) as those in the wealthiest categories. Many have called gambling casinos and state lotteries a hidden tax on the poor. It is certainly true that most of the revenues from legalized gambling come from those least able to afford it.

A report from the Twentieth Century Fund warns about the long-term financial damage being done by legalized gambling in America. "Gambling’s get-rich-quick appeal appears to mock capitalism’s core values," the authors said. "Disciplined work habits, thrift, prudence, adherence to routine, and the relationship between effort and reward," are all scorned by the idea of instant wealth. All make the models of discipline and structure taught by the Bible and by America’s moral heritage meaningless.

In June 1993 the town of Aurora, Illinois, just west of Chicago, opened its doors and its docks to riverboat gambling. Small business owners were excited about an expected boom in tourist dollars. A year later, however, a poll of 25 businesses in the downtown area found that only 3 reported increased sales, and at least 4 others had been forced to close their doors. Business, parking spaces, and revenues had all gone to the casinos.

Professor John Kindt of the University of Illinois said, "Legalized gambling is inherently parasitic on any economy. . . . it always hurts the economy; it always creates large socioeconomic problems. And that intensifies the need for tax dollars to address the new problems that they are creating by legalizing gambling." In his report on the subject for Focus on the Family, John Goodman agreed with Kindt’s assessment, saying, "Money for gambling is usually diverted from people’s discretionary expenditures. Not only are dollars diverted from other products and services, but governments often also lose sales taxes which would have been spent on those products and services." From any perspective, gambling is clearly a lose-lose situation.

An even greater cost, however, is in the great and growing number of gambling’s victims—the personal tragedies and shattered lives left in its wake. After a thirty-year addiction to gambling that nearly cost him his life, one man prepared a detailed report on the physical and psychological characteristics of the compulsive gambler. Typically, he said, the gambler is a male in his thirties without any financial resources. He is deeply in debt to banks, loan companies, credit card companies, friends, business associates, and his family. He is behind in his mortgage payments, car payments, utility payments, and has no life insurance, disability insurance, or hospitalization coverage.

The needs of his family, in most cases, fall on parents, welfare agencies, or wages earned by his wife and children. Eventually, he will lose his job due to excessive absence and inefficiency; he may even be fired for stealing from the company to pay off his gambling debts. Everything he owns will be confiscated by legal action to pay off his creditors, and he will end up bankrupt, broken, alone, and possibly dead.

Consider the example of one woman who, after inheriting $20 million, decided she would multiply her riches at the baccarat table. Before long she was losing $200,000 to $300,000 on a single turn of the cards. Within five years her entire fortune was gone. She managed to borrow $2 million from an old friend, but soon lost even that. She sold her apartment in Paris for $200,000 and lost that, as well. When someone finally asked what had gone wrong in her life, she said, "I gambled too much." Too bad she couldn’t have seen the problem a little sooner. But that is the nature of this addiction; it hides behind illusions and unrealistic expectations. Gambling does not bring happiness; rather, it is a false god that betrays and destroys its devotees.

Eternal Consequences

The Bible doesn’t speak of casinos, dog tracks, pari-mutuel wagering, state lotteries, or any of the allurements so many people indulge in today, but it does talk about the sin of lust and commands that "Thou shalt not covet." Gambling, in any disguise, is institutionalized covetousness and should be considered a sin on those grounds alone. The Bible teaches that covetousness, when it is full-blown, leads to death.

As a violation of the Tenth Commandment, gambling is a sin, and like all sin, it is addictive. In 1970, before the boom in racetracks, casino-building, and the proliferation of state lotteries, there were an estimated one million compulsive gamblers in this country. Today, Gamblers Anonymous reports, there are as many as 15 million addicts, and the fallout touches more than 60 million family members, employers, employees, and friends of compulsive gamblers.

Put simply, coveting is the desire to possess something that belongs to someone else without paying for it. Whether it’s casino gambling or the state lottery, the greed and lust that motivate the gambler will eventually crush every wholesome emotion. State sponsorship does not make gambling less risky or less dangerous; it only makes the risks greater by giving a mantle of respectability to a destructive behavior.

From cover to cover the Bible urges men to be good stewards and to manage their treasure wisely, however great or small it may be. Paul says, "Moreover it is required in stewards that one be found faithful" (1 Corinthians 4:2). Ultimately, God holds each of us responsible for using our resources wisely. Would anyone claim that gambling is a wise use of resources? Solomon, often called the wisest man who ever lived, said that "Wealth from gambling quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows" (Proverbs 3:11 TLB). Further, he says, the laziness, sloth, and reckless willingness to risk one’s wages for an easy score—all encouraged by gambling—are deadly: "The desire of the lazy man kills him, for his hands refuse to labor. He covets greedily all day long, but the righteous gives and does not spare" (Proverbs 21:25-26 TLB). Again, the covetousness, greed, and idolatry of the gambler condemn him to a life of shame and misery until, ultimately, his blessing is taken away.

What You Can Do

Unlike many of the problems discussed in this volume, gambling is a vice with a long and dark history, but one which is increasingly portrayed as a brilliant and profitable windfall for communities all over America. It is no longer merely the sharks and hustlers selling the idea of a fast buck, but also state treasurers, governors, mayors, and town councils. Lobbyists and legislatures have caught the vision of instant wealth and a massive tax base, and many have turned a blind eye to the horrendous wave of destruction every responsible study portrays.

To help turn the tide, get the facts and speak up about the real dangers hidden just under the surface of this issue. Share your information with friends and family, and write letters to the editor when the issue is discussed in public or in print. Make sure your legislators, state representatives, members of Congress, senators, and local officials know of your opposition to legalized gambling, as well. Politicians estimate that every handwritten letter reflects the views of up to 100 others, so use this means of multiplying your influence with those who have the authority to make changes. Finally, be certain you’re registered to vote, be alert for referenda and local issue ballots concerning gambling, and be sure to cover everything with fervent prayer.

You may contact these organizations:

National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling (NCALG)
110 Maryland Ave., N.E.
Washington, D.C. 20002
(202) 546-2254

Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention
901 Commerce Street, #550
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 244-2495

Gamblers Anonymous.
P. O. Box 17173
Los Angeles, CA 90017
(213) 386-8789

Gam-Anon I.S.O
P.O. Box 157
Whitestone, NY 11357
(718) 352-1671

For further reading:

Robert Goodman. The Luck Business: The Devastating Consequences and Broken Promises of America’s Gambling Explosion. New York: Free Press, 1996.
Larry Braidfoot. Gambling: A Deadly Game. Nashville: Broadman, 1985.
John Eidsmoe. Legalized Gambling: America’s Bad Bet. Lafayette, LA: Huntington House, 1994.

On the World Wide Web:

National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling: http://www.iquest.net/cpage/ncalg/
Gamblers Anonymous: http://www.gamblersanonymous.org/

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Copyright 1997, Coral Ridge Ministries. All rights reserved.