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Gambling Revisited
Do any of you spend 9% of your annual income on the lottery? I hope not! Yet The Consumerist recently posted that poor households (annual take-home income under $13,000) spend 9% of their annual income ($645) on the lottery. America is into gambling, and the government has become the "house." Billboards are placed in the inner cities and in poorer neighborhoods with the clear enticement - the buyer of a ticket has a chance for lifetime security. So much for the old-fashioned "work hard and save your money Protestant work ethic." According to another study, 38% of those with incomes under $25,000 believe that the lottery is the "best way to wealth."
There was a time when our Presbyterian ancestors frowned on gambling. Today, we accept the lottery as a way of life. Should we?
Phil Blackwell, a pastor in Chicago, argues that "The state government's dependence on lottery sales is cowardly - a way for legislators to avoid honestly calculating the real costs of education, public services, and infrastructure repairs and then calling on citizens to be responsible through a fair tax structure." And what of the social costs? Researcher Earl Grinols of Baylor University has isolated public costs for crime, embezzlement, illness, lost workdays, foreclosures, and family disintegration directly attributable to gambling. He found that the public pays more than it gets: Society spends $3 on such costs for every $1 of increased tax income or other "social benefit" from gambling.
Is state-organized gambling worth the moral and social cost? Your pastor thinks not. I have never purchased a lottery ticket. Don't intend to either. In my opinion, government funded gambling is wrong. What is your opinion?
In faith,
Pastor Tim
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