Cuttino: Of gambling and God

Cuttino: Of gambling and God
Posted: April 15, 2012
By BOB CUTTINO

Recently Americans turned out in record numbers to buy lottery tickets from grocery stores, convenience stores, barbershops, etc., in hopes of winning the biggest lottery payout the world has ever seen, $640 million. Guess what they spent for those lottery tickets. $1.46 billion! Most people would love to “get rich quick” and dream of all they would do if it happened.

Someone said to me once, “The Bible doesn’t say anything about gambling being wrong.” Well, the Bible doesn’t say explicitly “Don’t buy lottery tickets or wager on ball games or play cards or roll dice” but it is vividly clear about the attitude to get a lot for a little or gain wealth without working honestly for it, and most overlook the commandment, “Thou shalt not covet.”

“Coveting” is wanting something you did not return honest labor to attain, “to have an inordinate desire for something belonging to another” (Britannica Dictionary). The Bible tells us coveting is idolatry. In Paul’s letter to Corinthians (1 Cor. 5:11), he says “I wrote to you not to associate with any who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard or robber…” In Colossians 3:5, Paul says “Put to death therefore what is earthly in you; fornication, impurity, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming.”

Solomon says in Proverbs 13:11, “Wealth hastily gotten will dwindle but he who gathers little by little shall increase it.” Solomon says at the end of Proverbs “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” But something within us, like the lead man in “Fiddler on the Roof,” makes us reason with God saying “If I were a rich man...” asking God for riches. We want the shortcut of winning the lottery or sweepstakes. To be rich may be a noble wish if that wealth is to be obtained by honest labor or selling a good product. Rich people can do great things — Carnegie’s libraries and efforts at world-wide peace, Rockefeller’s hospitals and universities, the charitable gifts of the wealthy for health and education and culture — all show good things rich men can do. But it refers to wealth nobly achieved, not the stroke of luck.

I worked for three years as psychiatric assistant in a mental hospital while in graduate school. We had to deal often with those victims of addiction — alcohol, drugs, tobacco and even gambling. Gambling can be as addictive as the other dreaded addictions. Gambling can make slaves out of otherwise good, healthy people. I have been a minister for 62 years and was called on often by families where gambling addiction was tearing up a marriage and a home. Gambling is not an innocent pastime.

The money spent on this last lottery could have provided 238,000 Americans with food for a year, treat 685,000 average U. S. households to gasoline for a full year, rehire teachers and repair many bridges. Get wise. Walk with the wise. Desire honest riches, but not at someone’s expense.