Gambling                                          Weblog Updates

Expanded Gambling: An Easy Answer to Tough
Financial Questions?

 

We might ask, “What is the problem?  Those who choose to
gamble generate the revenue, while those who don’t gamble don’t
have to pay.” But are the easy choices necessarily the right
ones?

 

What does the Bible say? In 1 Corinthians 8:9, Paul admonishes us not to use our liberty at the expense of vulnerable persons. That advice is especially appropriate here. Should we use our freedom in activities that impose great costs on others, especially those who are vulnerable in our society (such as those prone to addictive behavior or lacking discretionary financial resources)?

 

What about the impact of gambling on the poor? Studies show that persons in low-income brackets, including the elderly on fixed incomes, spend much more of their financial resources on gambling than do middle- or upper-income persons. When government raises money from the gambling habits of low-income persons, it violates the idea of progressive taxation, which means that those who are better able to pay should bear a greater portion of public burdens. The costs of our common projects should not fall unfairly on the poor.

 

Is there anything wrong with dreaming about a real chance of financial success that doesn’t include hard work and saving?  No, but:

· We believe that government is God’s instrument for achieving the common good.  By promoting gambling, government promotes greed, denigrates work and saving, and places important governmental programs at risk through unreliable funding.

· Government betrays its responsibility for vulnerable people by encouraging persons to gamble and taking away from them what they can little afford to give.

· Gambling is an unreliable source of revenue.  When gambling revenues decline—as we have witnessed with the Pennsylvania Lottery—officials then look to more and more exciting games of chance and increased advertising of gambling opportunities.  If something is important for the common good, it should be funded in the most reliable and fair way.

 

Increased revenue from expanded gambling may masquerade as a blessing for the state treasury, but it comes with social costs:

· Incomes from those who gamble are diverted from basic personal, business, and civic services essential to individual and community well being.

· Crime rates rise, adding new costs to local law enforcement.

· Experience in other states belies gambling’s promised economic development boom.

Links to Gambling Resources

DOWNLOAD PETITIONS TO END GAMBLING EXPANSION

Help prevent further gambling expansion by asking your families, friends and neighbors to sign today!

Read United Methodist Witness Executive Director’s May 7, 2009 testimony  opposing legalization of video poker machines

· Casino Free PA (http://www.casinofreepa.org/)

· National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling (http://ncalg.org)

 

 

· Stop Video Poker PA (http://www.stopvideopokerpa.org)

· What’s Wrong with Gambling (with scriptural references)

Resource:
Teaching
Children
About
Gambling