Lotteries offer big jackpots
and instant riches, but these promises often
mask the true economic nature of gambling. The
National Center for Policy Analysis notes show
that states usually keep only about a third of
the money collected through ticket sales. The
remainder is paid out in prize money and to
support the bureaucracy that oversees the
lottery.
Studies reveal money is lost
in several areas. First, the money spent buying
lottery tickets changes the spending habits of
consumers. Money that was previously spent on
goods and services goes to buy lottery tickets
instead. The net result is that enormous sums of
money are taken out of circulation in the
economy and redistributed to a few designated
individuals and agencies.
Another area of loss is the
multiplication effect generated by individuals
and business when the same dollars are exchanged
over and over within the economy. When the money
is taken out of circulation, tax revenues
decrease. Studies also show that schools in
lottery states typically see no budget gains
either. The New York Times reported in 1998 that
as a rule, every dollar received in lottery
funds results in a dollar reduction in general
revenues going to education.
As the study results are
compiled, they indicate that taking large sums
of money out of circulation within a state’s
economy causes individuals to suffer, state
revenues to suffer, and key programs such as
education to suffer.
—www.bpnews.net, Analysis,
States lose big with lotteries, according to
economic studies, October 7, 2002, Illustration
by Jim L. Wilson and Jim Sandell.
1 Timothy 6:10 “For the love
of money is a root of all sorts of evil. Some
people, eager for money, have wandered from the
faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
GAMBLING
Salon.com reports that
Americans spent $50.4 billion on lottery
tickets. They further report that poor
households spend a much greater portion of their
income on lotteries—about 9 percent.
While states continue to
depend more on gambling income America’s couples
continue to languish in poverty. Eleven states
raise more dollars from lotteries than from
corporate taxes.
Paul reminds us in Ephesians
4, the way to a surplus of income is to work
hard.--Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell
The Week, April 26, 2013, p.
14
Ephesians 4:28 (ESV) Let the
thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor,
doing honest work with his own hands, so that he
may have something to share with anyone in
need.
GAMBLING
Researchers from the Missouri University of
Science and Technology and Duke University have
found that young adults who are heavy users of
the Internet may also exhibit signs of
addiction. The study tracked the Internet usage
of 69 students over a two month period, and
found a correlation between some types of
Internet usage and addictive behaviors. Other
studies have also shown a link between
downloading files and a tendency to gamble.—Jim
L. Wilson and Jim Sandell
Heavy internet use linked to signs of
addiction,
http://www.kansascity.com/2013/12/16/4695919/heavy-internet-use-linked-to-signs.html,
Accessed
December 16, 2013.Updated:
2013-12-16T14:18:13Z
1 Corinthians 6:12 (NASB) All things are lawful
for me, but not all things are profitable. All
things are lawful for me, but I will not be
mastered by anything.
GAMBLING
Michael Gerson, an opinion writer for the
Washington Post wrote an expose of state
sponsored gambling, mainly lotteries.. Instead
of reigning in spending and or raising taxes,
the hard choices, the government is in the
business of treating its own citizens as marks
and dupes.
“The lottery is a particularly awful example of
political corruption,” Gerson says. “Here
government is raising revenue by selling the
Powerball dream of wealth without work.” Lottery
ticket sales are concentrated in poor
communities, poor people spend a larger portion
of their income on tickets, and the poor are
more likely to view the lottery as an
investment. “Offering the chance of one in a 100
million is the equivalent of a lie,” Gerson
says. “It is being sold to vulnerable people to
bilk them.”--Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell
Proverbs 18:22 (NIV) (22) He who finds a wife
finds what is good and receives favor from the
LORD.
Gambling
Americans have a fixation
with winning lotteries. The one 99.99 percent
sure thing with a lottery is that you will be
poorer for playing. In a recent record setting
Powerball lottery the odds of winning were 1 in
292 million. That is about the same as flipping
a coin and getting the same result, (heads or
tails) 28 times in a row.
According to Gregory Baer,
author of “Life: The Odds,” there is a better
chance you will achieve sainthood. That
possibility is one in 20 million. There is a 1
in 12,000 chance you will be struck by lightning
if you live for 80 years. The chances of hitting
a hole in one are 1 in 12,500. Two amateurs
making a hole in one on the same hole happens 1
out of 26 million times.
One of the scariest odds is
that 1 in 8 million of us will be killed in a
shark attack. Of course there is one way we can
be sure of never having a losing lottery ticket
and never being killed in a shark attack. Don’t
buy lottery tickets and stay out of the ocean.
The writer of Proverbs
reminds us that poverty awaits those who seek to
get rich fast. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell
Proverbs 28:22 (HCSB) A
greedy man is in a hurry for wealth; he doesn’t
know that poverty will come to him.
GAMBLING
“Problem gamblers make up about 10
to 15 percent of lottery participants, but are
responsible for 80 percent of the $73 billion
in sales of state lotteries. The higher the
poverty rate in an area, the higher the sales
of lottery games.It
is the desire for money they don’t have that
lead those struggling with poverty to the
lottery machine. The result is a new grief,
even less than they had before. –Jim L. Wilson
and Rodger Russell.
–The Week, March 1, 2019 p. 16
1 Timothy 6:10 (CSB) “For the
love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,
and by craving it, some have wandered away from
the faith and pierced themselves with many
griefs.”
GAMBLING
Les Bernal is the national
director of the nonprofit organization, Stop
Predatory Gambling. All but six states sponsor a
state lottery with a goal that is often getting
more people to play or extracting larger sums of
money from dedicated fans. “An enormous amount
of their profits comes from people who are
addicted,” Bernal says. “Lotteries have come to
represent, for millions of Americans, the best
way to change their lives, this has come to
represent the American dream.”
The most telling statistic
comes from the business school of Carnegie
Mellon that found the higher the poverty rate in
an area, the higher the lottery sales. –Jim L.
Wilson and Rodger Russell.
An addiction That States
Encourage, The Week, April 12, 2019 p. 36
1 Timothy 6:10 (CSB) For the
love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,
and by craving it, some have wandered away from
the faith and pierced themselves with many
griefs.
GAMBLING
States
are approving new forms
of gambling. Lotteries turned out not to
provide enough state revenue. The next
step is legalizing online sports gambling.
Since New Jersey approved this form
of gambling, hotlines for gambling addicts
in the state have received 21
percent more calls involving sports betting.
Any expansion of legal gambling
always brings a spike in the number of
people with gambling addictions. Arnie
Wexler, a compulsive-gambling advocate, says
“legal sports betting will unleash
a volcano of gambling addiction in America.”
The number of British problem
gamblers is up 50% percent in the three
years since legalization of online
sports gambling.
July
5/12, 2019 The Weekp.
11
Legalizing
online sports
gambling is the latest folly in our rush to
impoverish people. The people most
subject to misusing gambling are those who
cannot afford it. We need to avoid
the false belief that just because something
is legal it is OK to do. –Jim L.
Wilson and Rodger Russell.
1 Corinthians 6:12 (CSB)
“’Everything is permissible for
me,’ but not everything is beneficial.
‘Everything is permissible for me,’ but
I will not be mastered by anything.”
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