The Tribune

By PASTOR ALLAN R LEE

This article is part 1 of an edited and revised version of a message televised when government first introduced the idea of a national lottery a decade ago, and repeated to members of Calvary Bible Church in 2012.

Referendum of

gambling promised

In May, a referendum on gambling was promised by the newly formed government. I am convinced that this stated objective reveals the way in which politicians have manipulated and desensitised our minds and way of thinking.

So, before getting into the core of my message, let me say a few words about our lack of discernment and understanding of the far-reaching affects of unthinking, uncaring politicians, which results in uncaring citizens as well.

According to media reports, the objective of the promised referendum is to decide whether or not “web shop-type gaming should be decriminalised”. This acknowledges that this form of gambling is criminalised right now.

And that is true – gambling both via lottery or via what is now called web-shop gambling, referring especially to what is best known as “the numbers racket,” have been a strictly criminal activity for many, many years as far as Bahamians are concerned.

This means that everyone who gambles in this way is performing a criminal activity.

To put it bluntly, those who play the numbers, whether you are a Christian or not, are criminals when you play the numbers.

In doing so, Christians are deliberately and willingly, as Paul says in Romans, “opposing the ordinances of God.”

Secondly, the numbers racket is a problem today simply because of the fact that successive governments have not done their job of upholding the law by prosecuting those whom they know are performing these illegal actions.

So then, what the government is actually promising to do is to have citizens determine whether or not it – meaning the government, not just PLP or FNM, but the government – has been guilty of NOT obeying the law of the land itself, by failing to shut these web-shop numbers locations down, as demanded by the laws of the Bahamas, which every government pledges to uphold.

The government, therefore, and not the people, is primarily responsible for the growth and spread of the numbers racket.

If they had done their job, there would be no numbers problem in the Bahamas.

In essence, if the referendum were to be approved, it should also be a basis for recalling the present government, since they did not do their job when they were in power a decade or so ago.

Is the proposed referendum then, simply an abdication of government responsibility?

If a referendum is indeed to be held, should not the question asked be: “Should the government be held responsible for the lawless ethos that now plagues our country because of its deliberate failure to apply the laws of the land as related to gambling?”

I suggest therefore – and I would say the same thing if the FNM had won and made the same promise – perhaps we need a referendum asking whether or not the government should be recalled because of their open and blatant acknowledgment that they do not intend to carry out the laws of the land.

So far, there is no indication of what the government will do if Bahamians reject the proposal to “decriminalise” gambling in the Bahamas.

Will it apply the laws of the land and shut down these web-shops and arrest those who are responsible for running them, or would it be business as usual?

Oddly – and tellingly – the one thing that the web shop operators would be forced to do by government is to establish psychological facilities for those would admittedly become addicts to this terrible vice.

How stupid can a government be to legalise an activity that they know will cause harm to its people? This is nothing short of political lunacy and psychological oppression.

Finally in this preface, a message directed especially to professing Christians, because I am convinced this referendum would be defeated if Christians vote “no” – in fact, I would go so far as to say the success of this proposed referendum depends on professing Christians voting “yes”.

Those who profess to be “Bible believing” Christians should become “Bible practicing” Christians by obeying the law and not gambling in any form or fashion, lest they disobey God’s clear directive to “obey the laws of the land.”

If they do, perhaps their “Christian action” in this respect would cause the numbers racket to collapse and there won’t even be a need for a referendum.

A practical and

Biblical perspective on gambling

My argument is designed primarily for those who accept the Bible as the Word of God. I say, “primarily” because the practical aspect of it can be rationally evaluated by both those who have the Holy Spirit living within them and those who don’t.

However, as Paul explains in 1 Cor 2 and 3, it is only those who have the Spirit within them that can understand spiritual things – truths that are only revealed in the Word of God.

I will not address the issue relative to the legality or illegality or the constitutionality of the present law that prohibits Bahamians from gambling in casinos – or anywhere else for that matter.

The origins and reasons for this situation are so riddled with political and racial elements that it demands a different time and perhaps even a different venue, to say nothing of a different preacher.

I do not overlook the paradoxical, real-life situations in which many Christians find themselves, in that even though we oppose gambling, we nevertheless have not only to do business with firms and people who make their living on gambling, but they also have to work and make a living for themselves in such places and with such people as well.

In a country like ours that literally exists on tourism – of which gambling is a major part – anything else is impossible.

As Paul the Apostle himself says: in order not to do business with the ingenerate of the world, we’d have to go out of the world.

That’s just the result of living in a fallen world, so please don’t come up to me call me a hypocrite for speaking out against gambling when you see me eating at Atlantis or Cable Beach.

First, bear in mind, I’m probably only there in the first place because I’m somebody’s guest. Second, I’m not there to gamble, just to eat.

Also, don’t come up with the lame argument that if I oppose gambling, then we shouldn’t accept offerings from members who work at places that allow gambling.

If you personally were to follow the principle that you only receive from those whose income is derived from businesses that do things you agree with, you would be in a sorry state to say the least.

I say again, we live in a fallen world. Please be advised however, as a general pastoral principle, we do advise and encourage our people not to take on such jobs, and if they are presently in such positions, to ask God to provide them another one.

That’s not being hypocritical, that’s being practical in fallen and paradoxical world.

In making this argument, there are two basic questions I want to ask:

• Is gambling a moral issue; can it properly be described as right or wrong, or is it amoral, that is, a morally neutral activity?

• In a country that has purposely rooted the principles of Biblical Christianity within its very constitution, is it morally right for those who govern such a country to legalise a traditionally criminal activity and encourage its citizens to participate in it?

But there are other important questions as well, for example: What is gambling?

It is amazing how few – if any – involved in this debate shave attempted to even define what it is we are talking about.

“Gambling is the betting or wagering of something of value with the hope of winning the outcome of an uncertain event, whereby the winnings are not determined by value, service or goodwill, but only on chance and in such a way that the winnings are gained from the loss of others.”

[Adapted. cf Wayne Oates and Ray Pritchard]

There are four major elements of this definition: the wagering of something of value; the risk of loss of that something of value; the gain of the winner at the expense of the loser(s); the desire to win, beat the risk, overcome the odds.

The results are governed by the ratio of chance or odds. There can be no gambling without the elements of risk-taking and a desire to win.

The nature of both determine the degree of intensity the gambler puts into his or act of gambling.

Note also, playing cards is not gambling, horse racing is not gambling, bingo is not gambling. Even rolling dice is not gambling in and of itself.

What is gambling is betting money or something of value on the outcome of these things.

This leads into another important question: Why do people gamble?

The answer is very simple: They want to win!

Although it is more likely that they will be eaten by a shark than win a lottery, or even to contract AIDS through contaminated blood – that’s a scientifically or at least, mathematically established fact – they still do it.

Their desire to win is greater than their intellectual persuasion.

Most gamblers do not gamble because it is logical or wise to gamble, but simply because they want to win, regardless of the odds against them doing so.

The thing with gambling, however, is that the odds are always against the majority of gamblers winning, or as a gambler would say, the deck is stacked against them.

This is one of the things that amazes me about gambling and gamblers. They know that the odds are against them. They know that to choose to gamble is to go against all logic and rational thinking, but yet they gamble anyway. The question is, why?

The New Yorker magazine stated that the chances of winning the lottery in that state was 12 million to 1. In Florida, where it is claimed that up to $50 or more million Bahamian dollars are wagered every week, the ratio is 14 million to 1.

That’s why one of the most forceful, practical, common sense reasons that can be given for a person not to gamble, is: gambling is intellectually irrational.

It’s the dumbest thing any thinking person can do – that’s why most thinking people do not do it. It is simply not a rational way to invest one’s money.

Another thing – those who gamble are “gamblers.” They are not merely called gamblers, they ARE gamblers. The only difference is intensity of activity.

The same way we have deeply committed Christians – sometimes called fanatics – nominally committed Christians and non-committed Christians, so we have deeply committed gamblers – sometimes called addicted or compulsive gamblers – nominally committed gamblers who gamble frequently, and non-committed gamblers who gamble occasionally.

Popular reasons given for legalising gambling

Life is a gamble

This implies, of course, that since we gamble with our life, its OK to gamble with our money.

Now, besides the fact that this is a patently fallacious argument, based on a fallacious assumption, it simply is not true that “life is a gamble.”

Life is a risk, or better, there are risks in life, but life is NOT a gamble. There is a vast difference between taking a risk and gambling.

Not everything risky is a gamble. Life may be described as a necessary risk – but gambling is not.

In fact, if a person normally took the risks a gambler takes when he gambles, that person would not live very long.

In actuality, life is an investment, not a gamble. Risks in life are reasonable, rational and necessary risks, leading to reasonable and rational returns.

This is not so with gambling. Gambling always involves an unreasonable risk with hoped for unreasonable returns.

The believer who trusts God for his life may confidently say: “We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” [Rom. 8:28].

For a believer, there is no such thing as chance or luck; he trusts God to provide all his needs according to His riches in glory.

So, using the rationale that life is a gamble is a straw-man argument. Life is a God-given investment.

It’s only

entertainment

But surely a basic fallacy is involved here also – the fallacy that whatever is fun or entertaining is all right.

Of course, this is not true. Solomon tells us in Prov. 10:23 that “Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool.”

The Bible says that some commit wickedness as a “sport,” in other words, for fun.

But does that make the “doing of wickedness” right? Of course not.

There are many things that are fun to do, but not necessarily good, moral or right. Today, young hoodlums destroy other people’s property just for fun, they even beat people up just for fun; does this make their actions right or moral?

The adulterer enjoys his or her adultery. The drunkard and druggie also enjoy their addiction. Does that make it right? The answer is obvious.

If gambling is fun, then it is fun to rob the poor, because that’s what legalised gambling does.

If gambling is fun, then it is fun to misguide the youth, because that’s what gambling does.

If gambling is fun, then it is fun to contaminate the church and corrupt a society, because that’s what gambling does.

In fact, Solomon states emphatically in Proverbs 21:17 that “He who loves pleasure will become poor.”

This is certainly true for most gamblers if that pleasure is gambling.

Surely, if gambling is fun, it’s the kind of fun we can – and should – do without, and certainly not the kind of fun that a government which is established for the welfare of its people should legalise and or encourage.

The Church does it

This one has become a special weapon used against the Council of Churches in recent times when it has voiced its opposition against the introduction of a government sponsored lottery.

The argument goes something like this: If the church sponsors and endorses gambling through bingo and raffles, why shouldn’t government and the general public do it also?

But once more, a basic error is involved. The false assumption is that everything every church does is automatically right.

Sadly, some – in fact, perhaps too many – local churches do many things that are not in keeping with the true nature or calling of the True Church Universal.

Not everything every church organisation does is right or moral. Jim Jones sanctioned murder and suicide for his parishioners. Should the government or the general public follow suit?

The fact of the matter is, neither the government nor the churches should be involved in gambling. What we should be doing is to be eradicating and condemning gambling in the churches and excluding it from government initiated or endorsed activities.

Dr Norman Geisler puts it well in his book, Gambling: A Bad Bet: “Those who trust God don’t gamble, and those who gamble do not trust God to provide for them. So, as stark as it seems, we must choose between God and gambling.”

Strong words, but true nonetheless. I agree with another comment Dr Geisler makes in his book regarding the church and gambling: “Of all institutions on earth, the church should be giving to the poor, not taking from them. Benevolence, not bingo, is the church’s duty to the needy.”

• PART 2 TOMORROW