Gambling in Australia | Ben Broadfoot – Enfield and Strathfield Anglican Church

Australia has the highest participation rate in gambling in the whole world. 80% of us gamble in some way.^{^[1]} Each year Australians gamble just under $20billion, and $12billion of that is on poker machines.^{^[2]} Last year Australians spent around $400M at the Melbourne cup.^{^[3]} 500,000 Australians are what the government calls ‘problem gamblers’.^{^[4]} That means they and 5-10 other people experience ‘significant harm’ from their gambling. The figure is astonishing, that 500,000 Australians experience ‘significant harm’ from gambling, and impact 5-10 others. Not all gambling is motivated by greed. Sometimes it’s motivated by social factors, or as an escape from life’s pressures. But in a group of 100 people, we should have roughly 2 problem gamblers who are significantly harming themselves and impacting 10-20 people. Perhaps not on account of greed, but still significantly harmful. This is Australian culture.

What is gambling from God’s perspective? I want to make the case, very briefly, that most gambling is sin. Sin just means abuse. Sin is when we abuse or mistreat God, or when we abuse or mistreat other people. So what I’m saying is that most gambling is abuse, it’s sin.

Let’s think about this idea under two different biblical categories. We’ll use the two categories Jesus gave us when he told us that the right way to live is to love God and love our neighbours.^{^[5]}

Love for God

First we’ll see that most gambling is sin because it fails to love God. This is because most gambling happens because people believe in chance. People gamble because they believe chance, luck, or probability rule the world. This is how the pokies work, but even card games and sporting matches use odds and probability. But if we love God, we’ll believe him when he says rather than chance ruling the world, instead God rules the world, even things that appear to be random. We can see this from Proverbs 16:33:

The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.

Casting lots is an old equivalent to tossing a coin, or drawing straws. It’s a way of taking a decision out of my hands. But while it may take a decision out of our own hands, it doesn’t put the decision into the hands of chance, but every decision is God’s. Most gambling calls God a liar and says that chance determines the outcome. So most gambling is sin against God. It’s mistreating or abusing God.

Love for our neighbours

Second, most gambling is sin because it fails to love our neighbour. The gambling industry thrives on greed. When we win, we don’t actually win profits away from that industry. The money we win is just a small fraction of the money our neighbours have gambled. When we gamble, a group of people essentially put their money together, and the gambling industry takes most of it, but gives a little bit to a small number of other people. It’s a method of getting rich (or a method of leisure or escapism) that takes money from others without working for it. Those others tend to be, in Australia, the poorer and less educated people in our society. We prey on our financially vulnerable neighbours for our own benefit. But consider how Jesus would have us think about our neighbours and money, as in Ephesians 4:28:

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

God has given us a way to earn money so that people are benefited from our work. Those who are benefited from our work pay us. With that pay we can both pay other people for their work, and be generous to those who don’t have the money that they need. The way of receiving money that God has given us benefits all of society. But the way of receiving money that gambling gives us benefits a small number of people, by taking money from financially vulnerable people.

These two areas aren’t all of the thinking that can be done about gambling, but enough to show us that most gambling is sin, because rather than loving God and loving our neighbours it is abusive towards God and our neighbours. So when you have an opportunity to join a sweep this Melbourne cup, I’d recommend saying something like “I don’t want to support that industry. Jesus has given me a better way to use my money.”

The reason I’ve said most gambling is sin, rather than all gambling is sin, is that the bible doesn’t, as far as I can tell, explicitly label gambling as sin. It is conceivable that someone could gamble in such a way that is not abusive toward God or their neighbours, but most gambling doesn’t fit Jesus’ command to love.

If you’re guilty of failing to love God and love your neighbours, this is a sad, but not unusual part of life in a broken world. God has promised that he’ll forgive us, so trusting him isn’t a gamble at all, his promises can be trusted.^{^[6]} If you’ve got a problem with gambling it’d be great to let other people at church know so they can help you deal with that problem, whether you’re in financial distress, or need help stopping gambling. One of God’s great gifts to us is one another, so make sure you share that burden with others, remembering God’s forgiveness.

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