What does the Bible say about gambling?

[missmuffet]

Do you think it is ok to buy lottery tickets,bet on the horses or play the slot machines?

[Omegaman 3.0]

I think for the most part, gambling is just bad stewardship. Why risk money that way? What is the point? Is it because it is a way to have financial gain without working for it? Work is the way that we get our needs under God's paln, and he will provide those needs. 

 

For too many people, it is addictive, and we are not to let anything control us, apart from the Holy Spirit, and what we know to be God's will.

 

Like many things, it may be possible to gamble, and not sin. Excess, instead of moderation, is a problem. If I choose to wager a dollar on a lottery, or in a slot machine, or whatever, it might be that I could do that as entertainment. It might be no more an abuse that buying a donut (pleasure, but nutritionally lacking), renting a video (fun, but seldom edifying), or many other things we could come up with.

 

If one's motivation is greed, love of money, simple pleasures or the world, etc. the bible has things to say about such things.

 

I think if we are tempted to gamble, we need to examine our hearts, check our motivations, ask ourselves if this is wise, and consider what things might have been done, with the money we are risking, since we apparently have money to spare.

 

I hate to support industries like the lotto, knowing that at least in my state, it is a scam designed to make you think you are helping schools (a way to help you justify your actions) but in fact, the money goes to the government and to the lotto operators, and the schools failed to receive the money they were told to expect.

 

The fact that the lotto, the racetrack, the casino etc, are all designed to take money from people and give nothing of real value in return, I find disturbing. Often times it is the people who least can afford it, who lose the most and while I recognize that people make their own choices, I would not want to subsidize such an industry.

 

Some people may look at investments (stock market, etc) in the same light, but I think there are real differences. When you buy a stock, or invest in a mutual fund, you are becoming a part owner in a company. In this sense, it is a bit like starting a business. You invest money in a business, in the hope that it will turn a profit. Fact is, most businesses fail initially. In a company stock though, the company already has assets and a plan, a lot of the ground work is already done and the company is established.

 

When you buy a sock, or a car, or a house, or anything else, it has a value, and it may go up or down, there is a risk to that, but a risk is not the same as a gamble. When you gamble, you instantly have but your money at risk, without exchanging it for ownership of anything.

 

I expect this thread will become hotly contested, this topic came up in a home felloship I attended, and the conversation that ensued, was very passionate.

 

So, to the question is it "O.K."  Well, it is not necessarily sin in itself, so in that sense it may be o.k., but o.k. does not mean it is a good thing to do, and like drinking alcohol, can be very destructive if done to excess or unwisely, and I expect most gambling is done unwisely.

 

I gambles once  year for 8 years in a row (went to Vegas for another purpose. I believed that I could beat the house, not believed like I thought I could be lucky, I believed because I thought I could beat the system on the basis of mathematical odds. Even then, I alotted myself an amount of money to bet, that I could afford to lose without grief, never risked money for necessities, it was just recreational money

 

For all 8 of those years, I never lost, I always came home with more money than I arrived in Vegas with. I later, did a long term complicate computer modeling of my system, and learned that this success was an anomaly, and that I could not expect it to continue. I quit and never gambled again. 

 

As far as what the bible has to say about it, not a lot (no pun intended). The only thing I can think of that is similar, would be casting lots.

[missmuffet]

I think for the most part, gambling is just bad stewardship. Why risk money that way? What is the point? Is it because it is a way to have financial gain without working for it? Work is the way that we get our needs under God's paln, and he will provide those needs. 

 

For too many people, it is addictive, and we are not to let anything control us, apart from the Holy Spirit, and what we know to be God's will.

 

Like many things, it may be possible to gamble, and not sin. Excess, instead of moderation, is a problem..

I like the above statement.That is the way I look at it.

[1x1is1]

If I look at this gambling question as...what would Jesus do?  I have to take into account as to why Jesus probably would not gamble.   Could it be that He would effectively be cheating, because He would already know the outcome?  And when you consider He lead by example, then He surely didn't risk His ministry's funds.

 

Jesus did take a gamble on each one of us though.  Even knowing who would choose Him in the end did not prevent Him form leaving the path open for everyone by dying for our sins.  Instead of money, He gave His life as ransom.