COVETOUSNESS AND GAMBLING

by Dave Brown

 

Ye often hear it said ...

“Life is a gamble, so gambling cannot be sinful.”

but Paul stated (1 Cor. 6:10) that ...

“...[the] covetous... shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”

 

Covetous in this context is referring to those who are "(eager) to have more" i. e., to have what belongs to others; hence, "greedy of gain, ..." <1 Cor. 5:10-11; 6:10; Eph. 5:5> (from Vine's Expository Dictionary).  This is the exact motivation for gambling, and the bible clearly condemns it.  Those who argue that “life is a gamble” make the word meaningless in an attempt to confuse.  Unlike gambling, legitimate business risks can and often do produce wealth for everyone.

 

Covetousness brings about its own set of consequences.  One is the addictive nature of gambling.  It has been estimated that the cost of this problem alone to society (bankruptcies, additional government assistance, etc.) more than offsets any financial gains that legalized gambling could produce.  Those who have faith in God’s way can see clearly that the states that are depending upon this vice to fund their programs will have to pay a dear price when these sources dry up.  Any system of revenue generation based purely on greed (as opposed to the generation of real wealth) will ultimately collapse of its own weight.  It is a house of cards that looks good for a while, just like many pyramid schemes.  But history shows that the more effort that we put into non-productive (in this case, counterproductive) enterprises, the quicker our society will not be able to meet its basic needs.