One in 76 Million

One in 76 Million (April 21, 2002)

"I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly"

Here is a multiple choice question for you. One in 76 million is (A) my chances of beating Tiger Woods in a round of golf, (B) the chances of Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat shaking hands, or (C) the chances of winning the lottery. The answer, of course, is C, and it doesn't depend on how many people play. No matter how many play, there are 76 million possible permutations in the numbers. Last week, incredibly, people were lined up in states from Georgia to Connecticut to buy tickets.

You are 8000 times more likely to be struck by lightening while standing on line to buy a lottery ticket than you are to buy a winning ticket.

When I was in Texas visiting my brother he happened to be watching CNN. The announcing team brought in a representative of the Georgia Gaming Commission, who waxed enthusiastic about the lottery and how much good it would do for education. No one was brought in by CNN to give the other side. It is just assumed that there is no debate. Our local TV announcers do the same thing whenever they announce the winning numbers. "You have to be in it to win it," I've heard them say many times. My answer is "No." I win I every week. I don't play.

The fourth Sunday after Easter the readings always focus on Jesus as the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd cares for the sheep, he lays down in front of the sheepfold to protect them, he calls them each by name, and he gives his life for the sheep. And he watches out for thieves and wolves.

Well, there is a wolf out there in sheep's clothing, pretending to do good but in fact causing more harm in our society than anything else except drugs. And that is legalized gambling. The governor has been pushing for legalized casinos as part of an economic relief package for upstate New York and now this is coming closer to New York city. It is very likely that soon New York will join the other states going for what is called the Big Game, which is the $300 million lottery.

Recent studies have shown a sharp rise in the increase of compulsive gambling associated with the spread of legalized casinos and state lotteries. Of course, the casino operators and our elected representatives who support lotteries are loath to concede that this is more than harmless adult entertainment. Moreover it has been shown that people with alcohol and drug problems are more likely to have a gambling problem. One counselor on compulsive gambling has estimated that up to five percent of the general population and as much as 25 percent of substance abusers are compulsive gamblers.

But here's the difference: With drugs and alcohol abuse there are many ways in which the message goes out that abuse of these substances is wrong. Alcohol, for instance, is not advertised on television, and the government has a so-called war on drugs and there are advertisements warning against drug addiction. But there is no such message with gambling.

One TV network had to back off recently when it said it would have ads for hard liquor on prime time. But all the networks and local channels happily run ads and give out the numbers for the lottery. By supporting state lotteries and by nightly announcements of lottery winnings on television, and by having no alternative point of view presented when a lottery commissioner is interviewed, the clear impression is given is that this not only OK but it is good for you and good for society. Have fun and help education. That's the message.

All of this is old fashioned snake oil. The sheep are getting fleeced, led to the cleaners, taken for a ride. Only about 30 or 40 cents of every dollar goes to the state programs. The rest is for administration, payoffs to winners, and advertising. Everyone knows fund are fungible. State legislatures raise money for education from lotteries and then cut it back some other way because they count on the money from the lottery.

Lotteries have not been big revenue raisers for states and they are terrible in the pay off to winners. One expert said, "If you put the money you put into administering the lottery into more rigorous administration of your state income tax, you'll get more revenue." As for payoffs to winners, as a percentage of revenues, lotteries pay out less than any other form of gambling.

It is well known that gambling is a regressive form of taxation, impacting the poor the hardest. One of the CNN announcers did ask the Georgia commissioner if that were true and she fudged the answer by claiming that when the stakes are this big everyone plays, not just the poor. And, of course, since everyone plays it must be all right, right?

A study in Michigan found that the least affluent spend a disproportionate amount of their income on lottery tickets. An economist at the university of Michigan found that the proportion of family income spent on lottery tickets declined 12 percent for every 10 percent increase in income. In Connecticut and Massachusetts two sociologists estimated that lotteries were equivalent to a state sales tax of 60 to 90 percent, falling disproportionately on lower income groups.

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, and our own Synod of the Northeast, as well as our presbytery have been on record for years opposed to all forms of gambling. I think this opposition is one of the best contributions any church can make in the war on poverty. It boggles my mind that so many organizations working to eliminate poverty never mention the harm of gambling.

Some critics accuse states of deliberately targeting inner-city neighborhoods, particularly for daily games patterned after illegal numbers rackets. As H. Roy Kaplan, a sociology professor at the Florida Institute of Technology puts it, "There is something cruelly perverse about states encouraging, even proselytizing, their poorest and least educated citizens to gamble for the purpose of generating funds for education." Amen to that!

Presbyterians have always opposed gambling, though the reasons for the opposition have differed over the centuries. In the 17th century the Presbyterians who wrote the Westminster Confession blasted what they called "wasteful gaming" as a violation of the commandment not to steal. The problem for them was the threat of winning because it meant getting something for nothing. Not many Presbyterian ministers will take that tack today: "Don't play because you might win!", but we still think gambling is inherently wrong. You'll never find so much as Bingo at a Presbyterian church.

I remember years ago Jean Wanamaker, who is now gone, was very upset when someone proposed that a hand-made quilt be auctioned off to help the bazaar. Smacked too much of gambling to Jean. She was, of course, a dyed-in-the-wool Presbyterian and she wasn't going to have any gambling going on in her church!

Widespread gambling, or "wasteful gaming" as the Westminster Confession called it, is one of the clearest examples of having money as our god. "Thou shalt have no other gods before me," is the first commandment. Each year more money is spent by Americans in four days of gambling than in an entire year by all the churches in the country to feed the hungry, help the poor, heal the sick, and reach out to the neediest in our society. The size of the gambling pot is now over $1,000 for every man, woman, and child in the country.

Experts say the gambling change in this country has come with state lotteries. It used to be illegal gambling was big. Now much more is spent in legal state run lotteries, casinos, and other forms of recognized gambling. Gambling has become accepted. It is "in". The New York Times had a headline on an article, "Rush of Bettors Turns into a stampede". I haven't seen a similar headline on people going to church. This should tell us where our god is.

Gambling is fast becoming the latest social addiction. In the long run states which run lotteries are the losers because gambling undermines the work ethic. Lotteries play into the notion that rewards are unrelated to effort. According to one expert at the Center for Addiction Studies at Harvard University, "Lotteries have stimulated more people to gamble excessively."

Dr. Robert Custer, a psychiatrist who is an expert on compulsive gambling, said that in the 1970's he saw one compulsive lottery player in every 400 patients, now he sees four in every 100.

Gambling takes a tremendous toll on families. People who suffer the most are often not the gamblers themselves but the people who depend on them or are related to them. Financial problems often plague families when the gambler decides the easiest way out is just to skip town. A Queens bookmaker told the Times of a friend who abandoned his family after running through $150,000 in six months.

After betting - and losing - all the money they can get their hands on, some compulsive gamblers finally hit bottom. Then they begin regaining control over the lives through organizations such as Gamblers Anonymous. We have a GA chapter which meets here every Wednesday. They frequently celebrate "anniversaries", that is, the years they have been free of their addiction. They have been coming here for years and they all say they couldn't do it without GA. And they are always grateful for the church providing this facility for them.

Jesus said, "I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly." That abundant life is about our eternal salvation. It is about faith, and hope, and love. It is about service and justice and freedom. It doesn't have anything to do with gambling.

You can bet on it!