Gambling

Gambling and the poor financial management that it brings is the cause of many broken families and destroyed lives. With the false hope of winning it big, many have lost everything. Legalized gambling is bad policy for the family because it creates an environment of unhealthy financial thinking and expectations.

Talking Points and Basic Information

A Biblical Look at Gambling
Focus on the Family

Gambling: The Issue
Focus on the Family
Gambling is a vice industry built on deception and fed by the intentional exploitation of human weakness for the sole purpose of monetary gain. Today’s video gambling machines (modern slots) are designed to be the most addictive form of gambling ever developed. Addiction counselors and psychologists are calling video gambling the “crack cocaine” of the gambling industry. People are becoming addicted to these machines within a year.

 Comprehensive Research and Articles

Three Truths About State Government-Sanctioned Regional Casinos
Stop Predatory Gambling
The First Truth: State government-sanctioned casinos lower the standard of living for everyone including those who never gamble.

Casinos and Crime: A Sour Bet
Ed Vitagliano
When it comes to gambling, people can argue all day long about morality, stewardship and whether or not it’s possible for a person to beat the odds and win consistently. Adding to the debate is the subject of crime. A landmark study found that crime increases in counties where casinos locate.

Video Lottery Terminals (VLTs) and Electronic Gaming Devices
Chad Hills, Focus on the Family
Experts on gambling addiction say that video terminals are especially dangerous because they offer gamblers a very fast, highly stimulating, rate of play. Faster play also means that bettors lose more money, because each bet a gambler makes is, on average, a loser, so more bets translate into larger losses. 

Why Casinos Matter
Institute for American Values
A report of thirty-one evidence-based propositions from the health and social sciences. Whether or not you personally gamble in them, the new casinos matter. They are influencing the nation as a whole. They are affecting our health, our economics, our politics, our ideas and social values, and perhaps even our sense of who we are as a people and what obligations we have toward one another.

Websites, Books and Additional Resources

National Council on Problem Gambling

Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling

The Founders on Gambling
WallBuilders
Historical writings on the issue of gambling.

Legalized Gambling: America’s Bad Bet (Book)
John Eidsmoe
John Eidsmoe does an outstanding job destroying all the flimsy claims of gambling advocates by pointing out such factors as gambling addiction, bankruptcy, cruelty to animals in pari-mutuel betting, how gambling preys upon the lower class as a regressive form of taxation. The book also tells about how gambling at the least does nothing for a state economy, at the worst it hurts businesses.

Gambling: A Bad Bet (Book)
Norman L. Geisler with Thomas A. Howe
Norman Geisler shows how all varieties of gambling – from office football pools to lottery tickets and numbers – can be psychologically, morally, and socially damaging.

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