C A R L B. G A R N E R

'YOU AIN'T GOT A CHANCE'

P.T. Barnum's cynical view of the public was seen in his oft-quoted words, "There's a sucker born every minute." If he was right it is also true that there are those who are just waiting to take advantage of that "sucker." Last week some blue collar workers in Ohio won the big $297 million "Powerball" prize, but for every winner there were over 80 million losers. This is a government scheme to get our money without calling it taxes. They call it "Lotto," "lottery," or "Powerball," but it is merely another form of gambling. As usual, the odds are overwhelmingly against anyone who plays. With a jackpot worth millions, people fought to buy the tickets. When people think there is a chance to get something for nothing, some will hock their cars and kids to take that chance. Their real chance of winning? Just about as remote as their chance of guessing the unlisted number of President Clinton, which translates into odds of 80,000,000 to 1 (Yes, that's 80 million to one!). Now, people will read about the winner's luck and then go out and buy more tickets. Maybe Barnum was right after all.

Gambling is not a new pastime; it has been around for centuries. Knuckle-bones were common in Greece in Homer's day. To satisfy the people, Rome used a lottery for government revenue instead of taxes. We have played pitch-penny, marbles and other games that are merely a smaller form of gambling. Big or small, gambling takes people's money without giving a reasonable and just return. Whether you buy a raffle ticket from a high school club or play the numbers in a pool, it's still the same "game." Whether it is for a "good cause" or "just for fun," it is still gambling. And gambling is just another form of stealing, but it has the consent of the loser. Gambling is stealing just as surely as dueling is murder. With or without consent, it's a dishonest, dirty, selfish, exploitative business.

WHAT IS GAMBLING?
Defining a term is vital to understanding and evaluating that which it represents. Webster defines gambling thus: To play games of chance for money or some other stake; to take a risk in order to gain some advantage; to bet, wager; an act or undertaking involving the risk of a loss. Economist Arthur A. Smith has defined it in these words: The deliberate creation of a risk of a kind not inherent in or necessary to the functioning of an economic society. Encyclopedia Americana defines the lottery as: A public gambling scheme by which, for a valuable consideration, one may by favor of the lot obtain a prize of a value superior to the amount or value of that which is risked. With these clear definitions in mind, we now see that gambling, in whatever form, is not merely a game, but is a means of gaining the possessions of others without rendering its equivalent return either in service or value.

ALL OF LIFE IS A RISK
It has been argued that if I forbid gambling, in order to be consistent I would have to sell my car, cancel my insurance policies and cash in all my investments. "Life is just one big risk," they said. Yes, life consists of many risks, but that proves nothing. Gambling involves the creation of risks – risks that are unnecessary to the supplying of every-day goods – risks that do not produce the staples of life and health. The farmer takes a risk, all right, but necessary risks for producing goods for the sustaining of life. A stock market investment is a risk, but not an unnecessary risk, in that it provides capital needed for financing facilities and goods. When you buy an insurance policy you do not create any new risks; you merely spread out the already existing risks of illness, injury, casualty or death upon the public, thereby easing the possibly devastating effects of those already-existing risks. No, that argument cannot be sustained.

IS GAMBLING RIGHT FOR CHRISTIANS?
Those who follow Christ should abstain for the following reasons:
• The Bible teaches the principle of honesty, giving a "day's work for a day's pay," not exploiting weakness in his neighbor. "Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good," Ephesians 4:28. See also Romans 12:17.
• The principle of the Golden Rule will never allow me to take by fraud or deception that which I cannot obtain by honest labor. "Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them," Matthew 7:12.
• Gambling thrives on an attitude of covetousness, an inordinate desire to possess that which belongs to another. The gambler becomes an economic and social parasite, living off the productive work of others.
• The Bible demands we be good stewards of our talents and our funds. Everything we possess is ours only in the form of a "stewardship," held in trust for the Lord, 1 Corinthians 4:1-2, 10:23-24, Psalm 24:1. The "something for nothing" appeal still exists – but Christians must reject it.

SOME QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
• Have your taxes gone down since the lottery was legalized?
• Have you ever read of a decrease in crime in the wake of legitimizing gambling and lotteries? Are you aware of the association between gambling and organized crime?
• Could you be a successful gambler while maintaining the Christian principles of charity and generosity?
• Do you think Jesus would be standing in the lottery lines today?

Why not leave it all alone; from the raffle tickets to the office pool to the race-track to the lottery. Even if it's for a "good cause," it's a bad gamble, both for the here-and-now and the here-after. Unscrupulous men and women stand ready to take your money whenever you are foolish enough to give it to them. It may or may not seem strange to you, but government agencies and law-makers are now in on it.