Why I Hate Gambling

Talking against gambling will always be politically incorrect. Today, we've got the problem of legalized gambling. Just because the government made it legal doesn't mean that it's moral. God anointed government to watch over and rule over people (Romans 13:1-3). But many times, governments have gone against their mandate. Worse, some gambling activities are done in the name of charity. The term "gambling for charity" is nothing more than an oxymoron because gambling and charity are totally against each other.

Why is there no such thing as charitable gambling? You can think of what motivates gambling. Gambling is motivated by the love of money (1 Timothy 6:10). Casinos operate in the quest of the owners to get rich fast by fooling others that they can get rich fast. Proverbs 13:11 warns that hastily acquired wealth is easy come and easy go. How often do people get rich fast through gambling, they get addicted to it and they gamble some more until they lose everything? It's no different than a Ponzi scheme where you tend to get easy money, you want to continue in the investment and you lose all in the end. I don't see anything charitable about that as casinos are the ones that get rich fast and not the gamblers. 

The casino is a major source of heartbreaks and trouble. Losing some money in a failed business transaction is painful but not as painful as the casino. Most people put a lot of money into gambling and lose almost everything to pay for what they have. There's no backup for gambling. I've read of cases of how one out of five gamblers may commit suicide and out of the ten of the spouses would follow. There's really a lot of fight with gambling. I read a lot of crimes are also related to gambling debts. Should I also mention that many casinos are actually linked and/or operated by big time criminal groups? What's more interesting is that many of the criminal groups who run casinos are also big time religious Roman Catholics. 

It also fellowships with the darkness and I don't want any of it (Ephesians 5:11). It's very hard to find casinos that operate during the day than during the night. I knew a lot of gamblers who go home late at night or at the break of down from gambling. One time I was invited to go gambling I refused because of the time. I turned down knowing that the night is when crimes happen a lot. People love the darkness because it hides their sinfulness. Many criminals love dark places because that's where they can easily hide from authorities. A lot of shady activities happen in the evening. I don't want any of the darkness. I want to spend the evening doing something productive for God than to waste my time gambling in the casino.

To close, here's a quote from the great late preacher Charles H. Spurgeon who said:
I hold (gambling) to be fraught with more deadly evils than anything else that could be invented, even by Satan himself. I saw an old respectable-looking man put down ten pounds. He won, and he received twenty. He put down the twenty; he won again, and he had forty. He put down the forty, and received eighty. He put down the eighty, and took up one hundred and sixty pounds. Then he put it all in his pocket, and walked away as calmly as possible. The man would lose money by that transaction, because he would go back on the morrow, and probably play till he would sell the house that covers his children’s heads, and pawn the very bed from under his wife. The worst thing that can happen to a man who gambles is to win. If you lose, it serves you right, and there is hope that you will repent of your folly; if you win, the devil will have you in his net so thoroughly that escape will be well-nigh impossible. I charge every young man here, above all things never have anything to do with games of chance. If you desire to make your damnation doubly sure, and ruin both body and soul, go to the gaming-table; but if not, avoid it, pass by it, look not at it, for it has a basilisk’s eyes, and may entice you; and it has the sting of an adder, and will certainly destroy you if you come beneath its deadly influence.