Chasing fantasies

When I think about gambling I think about a comment our first daughter made when she was just six years old. Overhearing my wife and I discussing whether or not we had enough money to buy something, she chipped in, “Why don’t you buy a Lotto ticket? Then you’ll get some money.”

Of course, our daughter had seen advertisements on television claiming that the way to get rich was through the lotteries. She had also seen lottery tickets clipped to a Christian friend’s fridge. And I suppose she had heard talk of Lotto at school. So I should not have been surprised at her remark. But I was. Indeed, it set me thinking about the social and moral impact of gambling, even ‘low-key’ gambling like the lotteries.

I have always opposed gambling for four reasons.

Firstly, gambling undermines frugal living. It wastes money. Few gamblers ever make a profit. Most, over a lifetime and proportionate to their incomes, make enormous losses. Better to throw a dollar in the gutter than to place it on a bet. At least that way you will not be troubled and thrilled by the prospect of it turning into a million dollars and thereby be tempted to throw another dollar after it.

Secondly, gambling undermines self-control. It is addictive. It creates a craving for more gambling. Through my work as an education officer in Western Australian prisons I met men who had lost their possessions, professions, families and freedom through compulsive gambling.

Thirdly, gambling undermines social justice. It produces misery and inequity. Through gambling, people are impoverished and families shattered. Lives are utterly ruined. And the community at large is burdened with the cost of keeping men in prison and families on pensions.

Fourthly, gambling undermines virtuous character. It promotes selfishness and greed. It arises from and gives rise to a love of money. It corrupts people’s affections, focusing them on the getting of wealth and material things.

However, after hearing my daughter’s remarks, I realized there is another reason to oppose gambling. And I think that this reason is the most compelling of all:

Fifthly, gambling undermines right perceptions. It distorts reality. It supplants financial certainties with financial fantasies. It perverts people’s understandings of how to ‘get ahead’. It leads them to believe that Lotto is the means by which they can meet their needs and make their fortunes. In short, it blinds people to the right way to get money.

Honest work and careful stewardship are the primary ways that God has ordained for people to satisfy their material needs and wants. Concerning the importance of work, Solomon states, “Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth” (Prov 10:4). Concerning the importance of saving and investing, Solomon states, “In the house of the wise are stores of choice food and oil, but a foolish man devours all he has” (Prov 21:20).

Earn money with diligence, spend it with prudence: this is the path to prosperity that God affirms and that gambling denies. And no form of gambling denies it more effectively than the lotteries.

Every week of the year, hundreds of thousands of people who do not otherwise gamble wager tens of millions of dollars on lottery tickets. Along with their money, they waste their time and hopes. Their lives are on constant hold as they fantasise over the question, “What you gonna do when you win Lotto?”

A friend once told me that she and her husband wanted to buy a new car. She explained how they had searched in vain for an affordable vehicle, and concluded our conversation by saying, “Anyway, we’re hoping to win the lotteries soon, then we’ll be able to buy one”.

Around the same time, a neighbour came (as was his habit) to borrow my car trailer. As he hooked it up he said, “This might be the last time I have to borrow it. I’m gonna win Lotto soon; then I’ll get my own trailer.”

Both my friend and my neighbour were quite serious. They saw the lotteries as the answer to their financial difficulties and dreams. They were not saving for the things they wanted. Rather, they were using the money that could have been saved to buy lottery tickets. They were bewitched by fantasies of the Lotto life.

Christians would be wise to resist the lure of lotteries, and of all other forms of gambling. We should practise and promote God’s means of meeting material needs and getting material wealth. We should work hard and save well—and teach our children to do the same. For the basic financial principles expressed by God through Solomon in Proverbs 28:19 still hold: “He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.”

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