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If
there is a silver lining to the economic recession, it
could be that some forms of gambling are in decline.
Many casinos and racetracks have reported decreased
revenue as Americans scale back on travel. But in some
states, lottery sales have increased as
down-on-their-luck consumers purchase tickets in hopes
of scoring a windfall.
"Some people who wouldn't normally take a risk are now
trying to get back what they've lost," says Jerry
Prosapio, co-founder of Gambling Exposed in Crest-wood,
Illinois, a Christian organization that opposes all
forms of gambling. "They've lost jobs. They've lost
everything. And so they buy these scratch-off tickets in
hopes of getting quick cash.”
Prosapio has experienced the devastating effects of
gambling. He started wagering on poker games as a
third-grader, enjoying the rush that came from winning.
In high school, he spent his free time hanging around
racetracks, observing the events like an apprentice
studying a trade. At 21, he took his first trip to a
casino, where he lost all his money but saw a stranger
win big. That was all it took.
"The Bible says in Proverbs 14:12, 'There is a way that
seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death,'
" Prosapio says. "Winning became my goal in life." That
goal nearly destroyed Prosapio. Though he married and
became a father, the gambling addiction grew. In the
first two years of his marriage, he maxed out 17 credit
cards and borrowed additional cash from family and
friends. After exhausting his other sources oF money, he
accepted a loan from an organized crime syndicate.
When Prosapio fell behind on the street loan, a member
of the mob showed up at his door, threatening his wife
and infant son. "That was hitting bottom for me,"
Prosapio says. "I knew I was not only risking my own
life over this, but now my family as well."
Prosapio joined a chapter of Gamblers Anonymous.
Eventually, he accepted Christ as his Saviour and broke
free from his addictions. That was 26 years ago.
"Everything I thought I could get by gambling
-happiness, peace of mind, fulfilment I've gotten by not
gambling," Prosapio says.
Today, Prosapio shares his story in churches, where he
says he encounters many Christians secretly in the
throes of gambling. In one Assemblies of God church, he
says he met a husband and wife who were both compulsive
gamblers to the point that they couldn't put food on the
table.
For Christians, playing the lottery may be more of a
temptation than other forms of gambling because some
believe purchasing tickets is somehow more acceptable
than visiting casinos.
In a Gambling Exposed survey of teens in church youth
groups and Christian schools, 47 percent said someone in
their extended family whom they considered Christian
purchased lottery tickets. One in three teens said a
Christian in their immediate family played the lottery.
Assemblies of God Chaplain Glen Ryswyk, a nationally
certified gambling counselor and clinical director of
the Christian Family Counseling Center in Lawton,
Oklahoma, says any form of gambling, including the
lottery, can lead to addiction. "I see the lottery as a
gateway to more significant and destructive forms of
gambling, much like marijuana is the gateway to harder
drugs," Ryswyk says. There is also a risk that playing
the lottery can become the primary addiction, he notes.
"I have heard of people spending their whole paycheck on
lottery tickets," he says. "As with other forms of
gambling, a win becomes a curse. They have to go back
and get a bigger win. Money is no longer the motivation.
Money is only a means to play. They're chasing the high
of the win. That's why it's so addictive."
More than half of all states with lotteries reported
increased sales in the second half of 2008, particularly
in daily games and instant scratch-offs. Some states
have proposed measures for expanding these games to make
up for budget shortfalls in difficult economic times.
Scratch-off ticket sales represent big money for
state-run lotteries. During the last week in April,
instant tickets accounted for 71.8 percent of lottery
tickets sold in Texas, bringing in more than $51
million, according to the Texas Lottery Commission.
Charles Mattix, pastor of First Assembly of God in
Barstow, California, has seen firsthand what gambling
does to a community. Located two hours from Las Vegas,
the economically depressed city of 24,700 is rife with
tragic stories of gambling addiction. "The wife of one
of our church members told me her husband has been so
addicted to gambling that their family has been nearly
torn apart," Mattix says.
The availability of lottery tickets at virtually every
corner service station only adds to the problem, Mattix
says. "Unemployment, predominately minimum wage earnings
and government-assisted income is the breeding ground
for the lotto smorgasbord," Mattix says. "Purchasing gas
at the local convenience store, I see insolvent seekers
standing in line to buy their tickets. Their aim is to
become rich with minimal investment, with dreams of
quitting their jobs and living in mansions."
The likelihood of a big lottery win is slim, to say the
least. Mike Orkin, author of "Can You Win? The Real Odds
for Casino Gambling, Sports Betting and Lotteries,"
calculated that one person purchasing 50 lottery tickets
a day would strike it rich once every 5,000 years.
James Walsh, author of "True Odds," put it another way
by saying a lottery player is much more likely to die of
a flesh-eating bacteria than to win the jackpot. The
biggest losers are often those who can least afford to
play. Lottery tickets often sell best in the most
impoverished counties, which could explain why the
lottery industry targets the poor with strategic
marketing.
Prosapio says a billboard displayed a few years ago in a
Chicago ghetto featured a lottery ticket and the slogan:
"This could be your ticket out." "The wheels behind
gambling are covetousness and greed," Prosapio says. "In
order for you to win, somebody else has to lose."
"Gambling is a pseudo form of grace," Ryswyk says.
"People are searching for life, for the answer to their
hopes and dreams, in something other than God. Yet it's
quite phenomenal the number of people I see in gambling
counseling who are people of faith. There are a lot of
hurting people in our midst who need the true grace that
comes from a relationship with Christ."
(Adapted from Pentecostal Evangel,
www.ag.org)
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