GAMBLING
G. I. Williamson
The question that I wish to consider in this article is this: is gambling a sin? And should officers of the OPC treat it as sin in their administration of instruction and discipline?
When the writer went to New Zealand in 1963 gambling was already a way of life there. It was quite a shock, at the time, and I thought: what a contrast with moral America. Would that the same could be said today! But the fact is that the moral decline of our nation is such that this could not be said today. And it is my conviction that the failure of the church to uphold the law of God is one of the primary reasons for this decline. Oh that the Lord would revive his church again so that it would, among other things, speak out against the evil of gambling.
Now it is an interesting fact that the Bible does not say ‘Thou shalt not gamble.’ This is because the Bible does not attempt to draw up a list of all of the specific sins that people may indulge in. No, what the Bible does is to furnish us with ten immoveable principles—the ten commandments—together with a complete Bible that furnishes us with a commentary on these ten principles. And by comparing scripture with scripture we can discern how these ten laws apply to things such as gambling. Thus the Larger Catechism of our church addresses this issue in its exposition of the 8th commandment. This is what it says:
Q. 142. What are the sins forbidden in the eighth commandment?
Ans: The sins forbidden in the eighth commandment, besides the neglect of the duties required, are, theft, robbery, man-stealing, and receiving any thing that is stolen; fraudulent dealing, false weights and measures, removing landmarks, injustice and unfaithfulness in contracts between man and man, or in matters of trust; oppression, extortion, usury, bribery, vexatious lawsuits, unjust inclosures and depopulations; ingrossing commodities to enhance the price; unlawful callings, and all other unjust or sinful ways of taking or withholding from our neighbour what belongs to him, or of enriching ourselves; covetousness; inordinate prizing and affecting worldly goods; distrustful and distracting cares and studies in getting, keeping, and using them; envying at the prosperity of others; as likewise idleness, prodigality, wasteful gaming; and all other ways whereby we do unduly prejudice our own outward estate, and defrauding ourselves of the due use and comfort of that estate which God hath given us.Now there was a time when strict Presbyterian and Reformed people frowned on the use of dice or cards for the simple reason that they were often used in gambling. I regard this as an error. Dice and cards are not inherently evil. They may be used—or rather misused—for evil, but that does not make them evil per se. No, it is not what is used for gambling that makes gambling a sin. It is, rather, the moral and spiritual attitude with which they are misused. It is in this that we find clear Scriptural proof—by good and necessary inference—that gambling is a sin.
The American Heritage Dictionary defines gambling as: 1. a. To bet on an uncertain outcome, as of a contest. b. Games. To play a game of chance for stakes. 2. To take a risk in the hope of gaining an advantage or a benefit. 3. To engage in reckless or hazardous behavior. From this it would appear that there are three essential elements in gambling. The first is the element of uncertainty —no one but God knows how things are going to turn out. The second is the element of risk—something of value, usually money, is wagered (put at risk). The third element is the element of inequity—someone (often just one, or only a few) will gain while someone else (often many) will lose. It isn’t hard to think of things other than gambling in which one or another of these element may be present. To undergo a medical operation usually involves both an element of uncertainty as to the outcome, and an element of risk that the outcome may be negative rather than positive. But there is no personal gain for the patient at the expense of others. Other patients do not suffer loss because this patient gains. Yet that is the case with gambling. Again, farming certainly involves uncertainty, and probably involves risk. Will this new farming method work? Or will the weather this year nullify my efforts? Yet here, again, there are no other persons who instantly and automatically gain from my loss—or lose from my gain. And the fact that the losers reluctantly relinguish their money does not in any way cancel the fact that the winner has profited at the expense of others (who did not at all desire to give their money to the winner).
The Bible says “Take heed and beware of covetousness” or, as the NASB translates it, “be on your guard against every form of greed”(Lk. 12:15). But it is this very thing that gambling feeds on. Gambling appeals to “the love of money” which the Bible identifies as the root of all sorts of evil (1 Tim. 6:9,10). The one who gambles desires to enrich self at the expense of others. Yet the Bible says we are to love our neighbor as we love ourself, and it says the love commanded by our Lord “does not seek its own” (1 Cor. 13:5) and “does no harm to a neighbor” (Rom. 13:10). Furthermore, gambling is contrary to the work ethic taught by the Apostle! “Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have something to give to him who has need” (Eph. 4:28). In gambling there is no delight in the principle taught by our Lord—namely, that it is more blessed to give than to receive—but, to the contrary, the delight is in serving self at the expense of others.
Someone has well said that gambling is stealing by mutual consent—and the fact that it is by mutual consent does nothing to redeem it. W. E. Bierderwolf observed that “Gambling bears the same relationship to robbery that dueling does to murder. One man will meet another in a dark alley and take his life at the end of a pistol, and you call it murder; two men will meet each other in an alley and agree to shoot each other until one or both fall dead, and you call it dueling. But the only difference is that in the first case there is one murder, and in the second there are (possibly) two! One man will meet another in a dark alley and take his money at the end of a pistol and you call it robbery; two men will meet each other round a table and agree to take each other’s money with dice or cards, and you call it gambling. But the only difference is that in the first case there is only one robber and in the second there are two” (Quoted in Christianity Magazine, Sept. 1990, p. 10).
Gambling also involves many other consequences that are too seldom thought about. How, for instance, could any sincere Christian accept money won by gambling if he is once made aware of the terrible price that others—without their willing consent—have paid in order to enrich him. It is a fact that gambling being what it is—and the sinful nature of fallen humans being what it is—gambling is very addictive. We hear much today about the proceeds from State authorized gambling going to support all sorts of things in the public arena. But when are we informed of the fact that (as reported in Christianity Today, July 10, 1987) “A Maryland study found that the poorest one-third of the state households bought half of all weekly lottery tickets…(while) Another study concluded that the lotteries in Connecticut and Massachusettes were equivalent to a state sales tax of over 60 percent on lower-income groups.” It doesn’t take much imagination to realize that many children, in such households, are being deprived of many things—including the adequate daily nourishment that they need—because of the gambling addiction of their parents.
In conclusion let me recommend a book entitled “The Ten Commandments” by Prof. J. Douma (translated from the Dutch language by Prof. Nelson Kloosterman, of Mid-America Reformed Seminary). In this book there is an excellent discussion of some of the issues touched on in this article (pp. 101-106, 347 & 348). I think a careful reading of these sections will underline the importance of remembering that the evil of gambling is not to be located in the materials used, but in a correct understanding of both the intentions of the heart and the effect upon others. But the bottom line is that the church, today, needs to clearly testify against this rampant evil.