On Monday morning, I was tuned into Marissa on CITA radio and just about 11 a.m. her segment What Would You Do started. She asked:
What Would You do? You go into a supermarket and see one of your fellow church members filling out and purchasing Lotto tickets. They give a suspicious look and turn away. What would you do?
Immediately people started to call in to give their views. Some said they would ask them a question while some said it’s not their place to judge them.
Over the years I have refrained from sharing publicly my views on playing lotto or, as we call it, gambling, but today I feel the urge to join the discussion.
Let me start first by saying I have never played the lottery or bought scratch cards or the like. I did gamble once as a child when I played one game of five cents a pass, ten cents a win in dominoes. During the game I felt so uncomfortable in my spirit and was so scared that my mother found out, that I never did it again.
I was brought up to believe that lotteries and gambling are ungodly and sinful. It is only now as an adult that I have sought to find biblical proof to support this.
Can playing lotto and investing be seen as the same thing? Are both of them gambling? Playing lotto is taking a risk. Most people I believe do it because they want to make money from money. It can be considered a risky investment with a high chance of no returns on the money invested. Financial investments like stocks are also risky and people do it in order to make money from money also. There is also a chance of no return on the money invested.
Here we see some similarities in playing lotteries and financial investments and in some way they are both a gamble. Where I believe the main difference lies is that one attempts to entice you to make money quickly.
The Bible doesn’t specifically condemn gambling, betting or the lottery, but it does speak specifically to the love of money and the desire to make “quick money”, which are the roots of lotteries.
1 Timothy 6:10 says: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.” Proverbs 13:11 says: “Money gained hastily will dwindle but he who gathers little by little will increase it.”
Casinos and lotteries entice individuals with hopes of getting rich quickly and all of them are structured to take large amounts of money from you and give very little back. In my opinion, many persons waste large amounts of money over time on lotteries. The allure of getting rich quickly is too great a temptation to resist and quickly becomes an addiction and leads to bigger problems.
Studies have shown that most persons who win the lottery, within a few years are either back where they started financially or in a worse state. We are to be mindful not to let money be our master but our slaves.
We have been encouraged through scripture to be good stewards of the things we have. Wastage of money, whether on clothing, food, pleasures or lotteries, is ungodly and cannot bear good fruit because that seed is sown in bad ground. We also run the risk of no longer depending on God or walking by faith, which is a prerequisite for pleasing God.
In the story of the “rich young ruler” in Matthew 16:19-26, Jesus told the rich man to give away everything he owned and follow Him. I believe this request was made because, even though the rich man followed all God’s commandments, he did not depend or trust in Christ, neither did he walk by faith; his dependence was on his wealth.
Hebrews 13:5 says: “Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’.”
• Corey Worrell is a former Commonwealth Youth Ambassador.
