The Baptist church (of which my family is a part) has a bad habit of majoring on the minors (while minoring on the majors, unfortunately). One topic that is blown up to enormous proportions is that of gambling. Now, gambling as we typically think of it isn’t really a good thing, but is gambling inherently sinful? I would suggest that it is not the fact that it is “gambling” that makes a thing problematic.

What is the difference between setting up a Scrabble tournament with friends, while everyone pitches in $5 for prizes, and setting up a couple of poker tables with the same friends while everyone antes up $5 and the winner takes all? Is there really a huge difference between buying a raffle ticket and buying a lottery ticket? (I am not talking about statistical/tax-related factors here; just the factor of putting in money for the possibility of being the one person drawn to win something.)

It is my perspective that gambling becomes a problem when one of the following things comes into play:

• Poor Stewardship and/or Addiction: If one is betting the grocery money, there’s a problem. If one is gambling compulsively, there’s a problem. If one is tossing in a few bucks for entertainment, there is no real difference between this and paying for any other form of entertainment.
• Taking Advantage of Someone Else’s Weakness: If one has reason to believe that someone he is playing with is putting out money he can’t afford to, then his playing is taking advantage of that person’s weakness and is failing to “prefer others” above himself.
• Creating a Stumbling Block: If one has reason to believe that by his playing, he is likely to influence another to play, who can’t afford to or has an addiction, he, too, is failing to “prefer others,” and that’s a problem.

What think you? Is there a Biblical basis for the forbidding of all gambling across the board?

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