Greed and Thanksgiving

In 1st Timothy 6, Paul writes to Timothy about the beauty of contentment and how the love of money is contrary to the love of Christ:
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

In operating in a true spirit of thanksgiving, we can be reminded that God is our source, He is our provider, and we are called to be content with what we have.  In the flesh, in the futility and volatility of human greed, we can possess an attitude that runs counter to the perspectives and practices that God would want to take root in our hearts.  He calls us to display thankfulness and to avoid being caught up in a thirst for "more," which can have harmful effects for us and the people we love.

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We can be thankful for the material possessions that we have, and not become ensnared by an
unhealthy thirst for more. Hebrews 13 says:
5 Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."
6 So we may boldly say: "The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

This Thanksgiving season, we remember that there are many individuals and families who are suffering, and today, I want to call attention to a group of people who have become addicted to a practice that runs counter to the practice of thankfulness - the gambling addicts.  I think this is a very timely topic to discuss, since there is a committee that has begun to meet to try to craft legislation that would somehow use the harmful practice of gambling to generate additional revenue for our state.

The Stop Predatory Gambling website has a link to an article from The Atlantic that it describes as "one of the most compelling and revealing stories ever written about the issue."  It goes on to say:

The country’s political establishment (both on the Left and the Right) has forced predatory gambling onto working class, rural and urban Americans alike over the last twenty years, casting it as “an economic engine.” One of the major results has been a lower standard of living for almost all of us, regardless whether you gamble or not.

Another tragic result has been the destruction of millions of American lives. Scott Stevens, the primary focus of The Atlantic story, [sic] is one of them.

According to The Atlantic story, Stevens started gambling at a trade show in Las Vegas in 2006.  On a return visit, he hit the jackpot.  He and his wife, Stacy, made several trips a year to Vegas.  The story says: "Over the next six years, his gambling hobby became an addiction. Though he won occasional jackpots, some of them six figures, he lost far more—as much as $4.8 million in a single year."  Stevens began to take money from his company to feed his habit. By the time he took his own life, he had stolen $4 million.  After Scott's death, his wife "studied gambling addiction and the ways slot machines entice customers to part with their money."  She filed a lawsuit against the casino he frequented and the slot machine manufacturer.  The lead attorney on the suit, Terry Noffsinger, is quoted as saying, “The manufacturers know these machines are addictive and do their best to make them addictive so they can make more money,” adding, "This isn’t negligence. It’s intentional.”

The story points out that:

Even by the estimates of the National Center for Responsible Gaming, which was founded by industry members, 1.1 to 1.6 percent of the adult population in the United States—approximately 3 million to 4 million Americans—has a gambling disorder. That is more than the number of women living in the U.S. with a history of breast cancer. The center estimates that another 2 to 3 percent of adults, or an additional 5 million to 8 million Americans, meets some of the American Psychiatric Association’s criteria for addiction but have not yet progressed to the pathological, or disordered, stage. Others outside the industry estimate the number of gambling addicts in the country to be higher.

The insidious nature of the industry is highlighted in these statements:

Problem gamblers are worth a lot of money to casinos. According to some research, 20 percent of regular gamblers are problem or pathological gamblers. Moreover, when they gamble, they spend—which is to say, lose—more than other players. At least nine independent studies demonstrate that problem gamblers generate anywhere from 30 to 60 percent of total gambling revenues.

Richard Daynard, a law professor at Northeastern University and the president of the Public Health Advocacy Institute, said at the organization's forum on casino gambling in the fall of 2014, “The business plan for casinos is not based on the occasional gambler. The business plan for casinos is based on the addicted gambler.”

Back to Stacy Stevens lawsuit:  In June of this year, the West Virginia Court of Appeals stated that “no duty of care under West Virginia law exists on the part of manufacturers of video lottery terminals, or the casinos in which the terminals are located, to protect users from compulsively gambling.”   The ruling, according to The Atlantic, focused on the “economic boon,” “increased public revenues,” and “enhanced employment opportunities” provided by gambling, as opposed to the state’s responsibilities to problem gamblers. Sharon Eubanks, co-counsel on the Stevens suit, said: "What this tells us is the states are addicted to gambling themselves. They seem unwilling to deal with the social costs.”

Les Bernal of Stop Predatory Gambling said: "Essentially what the West Virginia Supreme Court has said is that gambling interests in West Virginia are immune from liability.”  In other words, there is a partnership with government and gambling, according to the Atlantic article:

Indeed, experts argue that many states have created a government-gambling complex that implicates them in the casinos’ practices. Many states provide tribal casinos with regional monopolies in exchange for revenues skimmed off the top of casino profits—as much as 30 to 40 percent in some places. West Virginia has a proprietary interest in the slot machines’ software. Kansas actually owns the games and operations of nontribal casinos. New Jersey, Delaware, and Rhode Island have all provided financial bailouts to faltering casinos. “It’s a pretty sleazy way to fund state government,” says Peter Franchot, the comptroller of Maryland. “We have set ourselves up in partnership with a predatory industry … The profits come mainly from a group of addicts that are recruited and nurtured by casinos until they’re out of money.”

The false promise of economic security is yielding increased insecurity.  One more passage from this lengthy article:

Communities typically build casinos based on a mirage of false promises: that they will provide jobs, fund schools, and boost the local economy. But Earl Grinols, an economics professor at Baylor University, in Texas, and the author of Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits, has estimated that every dollar of benefit a casino brings to a community entails about $3 in social costs—whether it’s increased crime, or declining productivity, or more spending on services such as unemployment payments. “It’s a social negative,” Grinols told me. “Casino gambling is bad for the economy. It should not be allowed by anyone, anywhere, anytime.”

So, on this Monday before Thanksgiving, we are actually focusing on practices that counter the spirit of thankfulness.  Greed is such a strong component here - the false notion of "getting rich quick." The orchestration of a predatory industry with cash-strapped governments to create false hope.  The destruction of lives because people have become ensnared with the false security of "winning."

As believers, we have to be on guard against any practices that would ensnare us and take our minds and hearts away from our pure love for Christ.  Gambling preys on human greed, furthering the promise of "more."  It can no doubt become a powerful force, and one that believers in Christ should stay away from and that society, including our lawmakers who are charged with working for order and the common good, should reject.

The pursuit of worldly possessions can be an idol to us, and while gambling may not be your poison, there are other areas in which greed can manifest itself.  We have to take a Biblical approach to money and not allow the pursuit of the things of this world to supersede our pursuit of the things of God.