A Bad Bet?

When we lived in Gulfport, Mississippi, there was a Q & A column in the local newspaper about gaming. One person wrote in asking for tips on successful gaming and the chances for winning. The columnist, an expert in her field and actually representing the industry, began her answer with this statement. “Remember, casinos are palaces built by losers.”

And palaces they were. We took a walk-through of the most palatial one of that time once when we had out-of-town guests who wanted to see the sights. The domed entry soared upwards like the Sistine Chapel; the wide, elaborately tiled walkways with beautiful restaurants and expensive shops on each side made corridors of the fanciest, world-class airport pale in comparison.

Fountains and manicured flower beds reminiscent of Disney World attracted the eye. We even took the hotel elevator to see a sample of their guest rooms--beautiful, serene, professionally decorated spaces met our gaze. Designed to pamper, there were spas, salons and exercise rooms to meet one’s every need. People poured in by the droves.

Many people justify gambling by saying that the Bible is neutral on the subject. But the Bible is clear on the subject of stewardship. Wasting is always cast in a negative light. Jesus had the disciples gather up the leftovers from the feeding of the multitudes that nothing be wasted. The story of the Prodigal Son is often thought of as the story of a rebellious, runaway son. But the word, prodigal, means wasteful. He wasted his inheritance on riotous living. We knew of many instances in our years there of families being torn apart, their homes and sustenance lost in gambling, and of lives wasted.

When gaming and lotteries were made legal in our state, revenues generated were supposed to benefit the school systems, yet the schools regularly cut out programs like music and physical education. It seems the benefits went to the new highways that were put in to accommodate the extra traffic to the casinos.

When Hurricane Katrina hit, I thought it was ironic that a mammoth barge that held afloat one of the casinos was picked up and deposited on top of and crushing the structure of the first gambling hall on the Mississippi Gulf Coast dating from early times. Was God trying to tell us something?