A Christian Response to Gambling

At its extremes, the gambling culture nourishes a radically distorted hope, suggesting that all one’s problems will be resolved if only you hit the literal jackpot. A measure of the distortion lies in one study reported to us where a class of school children, when asked what they wanted to be when they grew up replied, “Lottery winners”. Gambling encourages a kind of idolatry of wealth, and indeed one might well argue that gambling, rather than religion, is today the “opium of the people”, to adapt Marx’s phrase. Gambling subtly reinforces and justifies the distorted values of a radically and increasingly unequal society such as Britain in 2007. We do well to remember that, “the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6.10), and serious gambling is an obsessive form of the love of money. So, how do we respond?

Some in the churches choose to witness in response to issues related to great social problems by taking a stance that completely eschews and condemns any form of gambling, however small. While this approach will feel appropriate for some, the Council recognises that individuals ultimately decide for themselves how they wish to spend their time and their money in the light of their personal beliefs and circumstances.

Our primary concern here is less with commenting on the personal choices of individuals, and more with the huge problems which occur when gambling becomes a major element in our economy, in effect a form of redistribution of resources from the poor towards the rich and a major social pathology. In our Reformed tradition, government and regulation are often seen as a “dyke against sin”, combating, reducing and regulating harmful practices, especially those that damage the poor and the weak in society. The Church can surely both care lovingly for the victims of our gambling culture, and challenge government and society to regulate gambling in such a way that the young and vulnerable are protected, and the exploitation of the weak is discouraged.

The Church, in this matter as in everything else, should seek to prefigure the Kingdom of God in its own life. In its pronouncements it should seek to build a neighbourly society where people care for one another, and see themselves as custodians or stewards under God of their material and other resources. In announcing the good news of the gospel, Christians must denounce exploitation, especially of the weak and the vulnerable.



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