By Rev. Dr.
Ed & Janice Hird
-an article
for the Light
Magazine
You can bet
that the increase in gambling is harming many Canadian families. We have personally seen many marriages break
up. Wives are not happy to lose their houses
to their husband’s gambling addiction. The Bible in 1 Tim 6:9 warns against falling into the trap of temptation, and
into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and
destruction.
Since the
COVID restrictions were implemented in 2020, those gambling four or more times a week has increased
from 23% to 32%. Online gambling has
gone from 62% to 78% for gamblers. Ruin
& destruction for many has been multiplied through these online gambling apps.
Many gambling addictions begin in the teenage period when the
brain is not fully developed. Young
adults aged 18–24 are more likely to take part in risky gambling
behaviour. College students have a much higher gambling rate than the general
population. Imagine the debt load that
many college students incur on their student loans from online gambling. The most popular form of Canadian gambling is
lottery tickets, seen by many as relatively harmless.
Since Pierre Trudeau legalized gambling in 1969, the provincial
governments have been annually making billions from gambling. No wonder that it
has been called another tax grab on the poor and most vulnerable.
Female gamblers average $15,000 of debt. The average debt
generated by men addicted to gambling ranges from $55,000 to $90,000. With so
many young men indebted to shady loan sharks, it is no wonder that property
theft is on the rise.
We have been numbed in our country to the evils of gambling
addiction. As it says in 1 Timothy 6:10, the love of money is the root of evil.
We have personally seen gambling cause people to wander from the faith and
pierce themselves with many griefs. Many in the Christian program Celebrate
Recovery often credit the power of the Holy Spirit as vital to getting free
from their uncontrollable obsession with gambling. As well, Gamblers Anonymous
has helped many get free from this intense craving.
One of the most important books for helping people understand
the gambling addiction is Dostoevsky’s The Gambler. Ironically,
he wrote it because he needed to pay his gambling debts, and avoid losing
control over publishing future books through a crooked publisher. His Christian
faith helped him eventually break an all-consuming roulette habit that was bankrupting
his family. Roulette has been a huge
problem in Russia, particularly in the military. Could Putin’s invasion of the
Ukraine be seen as his playing Russian roulette with the West?
Alexei, the
protagonist in The Gambler, was on a roll at the Roulettenberg Casino. He commented: “My brows were damp with sweat,
and my hands were shaking.”
Gambling
gives a buzz similar to cutting oneself, disconnecting oneself temporarily from
one’s intense psychological pain. As Alexei also said:
There arose
in me a strange sensation as of a challenge to Fate— as of a wish to deal her a
blow on the cheek, and to put out my tongue at her.
The character
Alexei saw this addiction as a madness that seemed to come upon him. Perhaps
that is why Step 2 in Gamblers Anonymous talks about a Power greater than ourselves restoring
us to a normal way of thinking and living. Compulsive gambling is
stinking thinking.
To Alexei, this strange gambling sensation was a fearful
pleasure, leaving him obsessed with a desire to take risks. The two hundred
thousand francs ($6.6 million dollars in today’s money) that he won quickly sprouted
wings, and flew off to the sky like an eagle. (Proverbs 23:5) Quicker than the
prodigal son, Alexei squandered his wealth in Paris with wine, women, and song.
Get-rich-schemes never end well. His initial gaming success did
not make him happy:
My life had
broken in two, and yesterday had infected me with a habit of staking my all
upon a card.
Serving two
masters is a double-minded hell. (Matthew 6:24) Gambling was a living death for
Dostoevsky and his character Alexei. Dostoevsky tried for many years before he finally
broke his gambling desire. His character in the novel also longed to be free:
“When that hour comes, you will see me arise from the dead.” Alexei longed to set
things right, and be born again!
Our prayer is
that many Canadians will come into a new freedom in Christ from the devastation
of chronic gambling.
Rev. Dr. Ed
& Janice Hird
-co-authors
of God’s
Firestarters
