Gambling: Innocent Fun, Financial Problem, or Sign of Hope Lacking?
Darren Pries-Klassen
Am I just hyper-sensitive or are more people starting to gamble? A quick channel surf in the evening leads me to think that I am missing a great deal of fun by not playing online poker. Lottery tickets are always in plain view when I pay for gas or buy a late-night grocery item. Maybe it just seems that way because I live so close to Niagara Falls, a gambler’s haven. Curiosity got the better of me, so here is what I discovered after a little research.
A recent report commissioned by the Canadian Gaming Association found that Canadians lost $14.5 billion playing slot machines, buying lottery tickets, and placing bets at the track in 2006. Total profits were $10.6 billion ($7.4 billion for provincial coffers and $3.2 billion for charity). That is a great deal of money. More staggering are the numbers of Canadians who gamble: 19 million Canadians gamble annually and 25% of Canadians play the lottery weekly. Canada’s population is 35 million which means one in two people gamble in some way, shape or form! With odds like that I probably know a lot more gamblers than I thought I did; you probably do too. People aren’t in the habit of telling others that they gamble. (I was told that “gambling” is an outdated term and has been replaced with the more sanitized word, “gaming.” I guess I am old fashioned.)
Well, so what? Some people gamble, maybe even people in the church. What’s the big deal? While many people gamble “responsibly.” 35% of Ontario’s gambling industry profits – or $700 million – come from 5% of gamblers that have a moderate to severe addiction. I spoke to a few credit counselors and asked if they had seen an increase during the last few years with people experiencing financial problems due to gambling. Responses like, “no question” and “absolutely” were common. The difficulty, I was told, is that a person in trouble is often financially embarrassed and so is hesitant to talk to others or to get help. Add to this the secretiveness of online gambling and the efforts to hide a gambling habit from family members, and the issue becomes even more difficult to address. The potential for financial devastation is tremendous.
One in four people gamble weekly, and one in two people gamble annually, yet the odds of winning a $1 million jackpot are one in 14 million. Seems a strange place for people to place their hope? While there do not seem to be statistics showing how many gamblers are church attendees, it is probably safe to assume some gamblers are church goers. Given our understanding of Christ’s triumph over sin and death, placing trust in the idea of salvation gives one much better odds with which to “gamble.”
The church needs to be aware of the financial devastation that gambling can cause. We need to discuss the topic in Sunday school classes and in small groups and encourage people to get the help they need before gambling leads to financial difficulty, let alone destruction. Furthermore, the church must never tire of repeating its message of hope. We have something to offer people where the odds of winning are far better than a game of chance or playing a roulette wheel.
First published in 2007.