When Is Gambling Sinful?

I'm working on a story about the interplay between gambling and religion and how it varies (even the definition of gambling) among different faiths. Any thoughts or ideas you guys have heard of that would be good angles to purpose or people to talk about? Anyone know of folks in area houses of worship where this is an issue? I'm building the story off the local priest in Garden City Beach who will be returning to Los Angeles to try to win $1 million in a TV poker tournament. He has been clear that the Catholic faith does not frown upon what he's doing and thinks "gambling" becomes gambling only when it is destructive, such as a father emptying his check account in a poker game or any other such endeavor. If you have any ideas, please post them or contact me: 626-03357 or ibailey@thesunnews.com. Thanks in advance. (And have a Happy Thanksgiving.)

Comments

[EdieCain]

Matt 6:33 says seek My Kingdom and My Righteousness and I will provide ALL that you NEED. so when we depend on gambling we certainly are not depending on The King.The chances of winning are slim and its quite addicting.I think the only people who win is the government.The catholics allow everthing else as do all churches so why not gambling.we kill babies,teach that the law is dead which causes a lawless society.we live in a world that accepts everything .Is that His choice for our life? absolutely not.when you have a catholic priest that is supposed to be according to man a man of god( he isnt but people thinks so)support something that is destructive ,your in trouble.the church loves it cause where do you think he is going to put the money back into the golden calf.I watch people that clearly dont have the money buy tickets that dont win seeking a system of destruction instead of THE KING.Here is what I know .I am a Kingdom girl letting my King quide me and take care of me.I pay 5 mortgages a month where most cant even pay one.I have many other testimonies of Kingdom living.There is POWER in The Kingdom of Yah !Power and authority was restored to The King,and to us .WHEN ARE WE GOING TO LIVE LIKE IT ? WHAT HAVE YOU GOT TO LOSE.....

[Brian37]

Gambling is not a "sin". There is no such thing as "sin". There are merely humans who make mistakes.

Gambling only benefits the odds makers. Occasionally they pay off to attract other prey.

If there was a thing called "sin" my natural non-magical word I would call it would be "gullibility". It often leads us to emotional reactions that override the REAL pragmatism we can use to avoid making REAL mistakes, or as the religious call it "sin".

"sin" is what believers use to describe our non magical flaws. "HUMAN" is what I describe us as a species, both in our good actions and bad actions.

[EdieCain]

wrong brian . sin is trangressing His Word.

[Sunny Fry]

You'd have to have some sort of cogent definition for sin first, wouldn't you? Ask the priest if he can explore the several different meanings for that one word in the New Testament with you -- for brevity, you can bypass *all* the different meanings/words in the OT.

Though I don't have time to look all of it up, there are a couple of ancillary things that might have bearing.

Baptists began utterly prohibiting drinking when it became apparent that some people had a problem with alcohol, and that the power of alcohol over a person could destroy lives and families. It depends on the passage from Paul that talks about being a stumbling block -- and has its parallels in Buddhism, where you choose not to do things that might be harmful to others if *they* did them. In other words, it began with a sense of compassion and brotherhood, but sort of quickly progressed to tossing people out of congregations if they had a glass of wine (I think that's more the exception than the rule today).

I suspect gambling operates somewhat along those lines, at least in religious circles where it's considered sinful. Add to that the casting of lots for Jesus's robe at the foot of the cross, and you've got negative associations with gambling.

I don't have any hard and fast rules, but I'm well aware of the addictive nature of gambling for some people. I also understand that the appeal of suddenly being a "winner" with tons of money contradicts that American Protestant work ethic.

I love penny poker, on occasion, where the point is sitting around the table talking smack and the most anyone can lose is $5 or $10. I've bought probably 10 lottery tickets since the lottery was implemented (one's still on the fridge, where I keep forgetting to check if it won anything).

[Disciple]

If it's not God's will it's sin.

[Philip Gray]

I tend to not gamble, because when I do I tend to figure out ways to cheat, and it's just not fair to the other people.

I used to be horrible about never entering a contest I couldn't fix the odds on. Last year, I won $1,800 by fixing the odds on sweepstakes. There was this website that gave points for searching that you could spend to enter sweepstakes. They told you the percentage of spending on each contests by members and the type and number of prizes, but nothing else. I researched and found the number of members in '94, correlated a chart of growth with a similar site to find the number of members, then took the percent the site gave to find how many entries to submit to each prize to give me a 50 percent chance of winning of winning a particular two prize contest. I ended up winning both $900 prizes.

Before last year, I figured there was nothing wrong with cheating the odds. I figured everyone else was free and understood how to count cards, use the double+1 formula to cheat blackjack machines, etc.

My wife wondered where the extra money was coming from. I told her what I had done. She informed me, in no uncertain terms, that what I did was immoral, unfair, and not everyone counts cards. I have to agree with her. There's not much I can disagree with my wife about and still keep her.
What I did, in the past, was wrong and I haven't gambled since.

Gambling still confuses me a bit. Can you still call it gambling if you fix the odds?