Seducing Society - The High Cost of Gambling

Every time I am in Vegas for a Conference, I always play one game. It is usually situated at the end of one of the slot machine aisles. It usually is not as glamorous as the penny slots, or the cool machines with video screens. But despite what Jeff says, the house does not always win. In fact, in all my years playing it, I have never lost a single penny. Every time my dollar goes in, I have always received 4 quarters. One time I even found a quarter left in the tray. The added benefit, is that since I get quarters back, I don’t need to cash in any chips. Every once in a while I have seen one at Chuck E. Cheese as well.

Every time my dollar goes in, I have always received 4 quarters.

… try putting in a ten. Who knows-maybe you’ll hit the jackpot!

….when you bought a Coke or something with those quarters.

I can concur with the addictive nature of gambling. I remember on one of my trips to “Lost Wages”, a cocktail waitress—attired at that casino as if she were practicing the world’s oldest profession—came up to an old guy with a drink or sandwich or something, and his gaze never departed from the one armed bandit. It was really strange. He didn’t even glance in her direction.

I will agree that Scripture does not explicitly ban gambling, but Dr. Straub’s comments about covetousness are well taken as a “gut check” to someone who wants to gamble. it also ought to be noted that a lot of gambling cities, starting with Atlantic City, are basically bankrupt. It seems that unless you’re THE place to go for a party that no one will admit ever happened, gambling does not in fact pay the bills, and teaching kids that a slot machine is the way to wealth somehow doesn’t teach them how to work.

So as a rule, I’d challenge the idea that gambling really helps things out, even economically speaking. It seems that encouraging covetousness, not to mention the other temptations of “Sin City” (gluttony, fornication, drunkenness, etc..) does not pay when one considers the economic fallout.