"It's just a game, entertainment," they say.
Albert Mohler, president of The Souther Baptist Theological Seminary and one of the brightest thinkers in Christianity today, says the national explosion of gambling "may well be the most underrated dimension of America's moral crisis."
"The Bible is clean on the issue," he writes in a recent online post. "The entire enterprise of gambling is opposed to the moral worldview revealed in God's Word. The basic impulse behind gambling is greed - a basic sin that is the father of many evils." Have a read of this website which goes into further detail in regards of a Christian context.
Although I am not a dedicated Christian anymore, and more of an inquiring Christian, I still believe and follow certain moral teachings within the bible and follow similar stances identified within the bible.
My own judgment is that large commercial gambling outlets such as casinos and state-sponsored lotteries bring much more harm to a society than the benefits they generate such as tax revenue. First, it is socially harmful and fiscally regressive because the largest numbers of gamblers come from the poorest segments of the population. Second, it leads to an addiction to gambling … and this addiction destroys marriages, families … and increases societal breakdown. Third, studies have shown that where gambling businesses are established, crime rates increase.
The virtues of hard work, saving, being thrifty and investing carefully are all undermined by this vice. In place of these virtues come greed, idolatry, laziness, deception, exploitation and a humanistic live-for-the-moment mentality.
Yesterday I visited Brisbane's Treasury Casino with some friends, my thoughts about gambling was already set in stone. I went in as an observer and had no intentions of gambling. I informed them of my strong stances as a precautionary measure in case I felt so strongly against it I would have done something about it there and then. The next thing I saw made my stance against gambling even stronger.
Inside the casino was filled with many greedy-filled eyes, staring blankly at the poker machines or at the gambling table. The basic premise on everyone's mind was not entertainment, it was to win money. The casino was feeding on people's simplistic desire to win money. People were drawn to the glitz and glamour of the casino, a hidden ugly truth in disguise. I have never felt so uncomfortable standing around people with such low values in life. It was treading on the territory of being morally wrong. Some have become mindless zombies, while others have become overnight millionaires. All I saw was lost men and women trapped within the greed of materialism and money.
People gamble because they want to win money. There is also a social and entertainment element in the form of gambling. There is a clear misunderstanding of lottery odds, susceptibility to gambler’s fallacy and cognitive entrapment, a belief in hot and cold numbers, unrealistic optimism, a belief in personal luck, superstitious thinking, and the illusion of control, the erroneous perception of near misses and the influence of social factors which fuels the destructive cycle of gambling.
Casino's are the product of greed and materialism. Casinos are feeding off the desperate. They are money making machines. There is so much corruption within the state of mind. When we institutionalize gambling we end up forming a destructive cycle and state of mind which feeds on our greed for money. We should not directly blame those who gamble, but the system and the government which allows gambling.
However, on a positive note I do like the design of the Treasury Casino. The early 19th century building with Edwardian-Baroque exterior designs and ornate colonnades, striking sandstone walls and six-story atrium is quite majestic in appearance. It's quite disappointing such an amazing building has become the feeding grounds for the morally wrong.
So what can I do about this? I'll expand my knowledge further on gambling and be knowledgeable enough to discuss the immorality behind gambling. My practice is not to gamble at all, including charity raffles and office pools, I'd rather donate the money directly to charity. I personally have taken a stance in that I will not support casino's in any manner, including dining the restaurants or staying at their hotels. It's something I can do, and I believe you can do as well.