Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

THE answer seems to be: almost everybody. And the easiest way to become one​—according to popular opinion—​is by striking it rich in a lottery or a soccer pool.a

Pandering to prevailing taste​—and wanting the extra income that lotteries generate—​governments from Moscow to Madrid, from Manila to Mexico City, sponsor State lotteries that offer prizes as high as a hundred million dollars.

A few people do become millionaires. One Englishman had filled out soccer coupons for 25 years before he finally won a record jackpot. For a stake of 50 cents, he won nearly $1.5 million. Even more spectacular was the payoff for a woman from New York, who became one of the world’s biggest winners when she won $55 million in the Florida State lottery.

But they are exceptions. More typical is the middle-​aged Spanish clerk who bought lottery tickets every week for 30 years. Although he has never won anything substantial, he remains undaunted. “I always expect to win,” he says. Likewise, a man in Montreal, who spent an entire week’s wages on a Canadian lottery, summed up the viewpoint of many when he explained: “Drawings like this are the only way the little guy can dream about a better life.” Yet he didn’t win.

Despite the universal appeal of lotteries, another form of gambling is enjoying increasing popularity: playing the slot machines. Although the one-​armed bandits don’t offer overnight riches, they do give the player an instant opportunity to win a jackpot​—which may be substantial. And they are no longer confined to casinos. Catchy jingles, flashing lights, and the occasional clatter of cascading coins advertise their pervasive presence in many European cafés, clubs, restaurants, and hotels.

Frances is an elderly widow who lives in New York City. Two or three times every week, she takes a two-​and-a-half-​hour bus ride to Atlantic City, New Jersey. On arrival she enters one of the city’s casinos, and there she plays the slot machines for six hours or so before returning home. “I don’t know what I’d do without Atlantic City,” she remarks. “This is our fun, you know, this is what we do.”

For others, gambling is much more than mere amusement, an escape from everyday routine, or a hopeful stab at riches. In their case it is an important​—if not essential—​part of life.

“I’m a gambler because I enjoy the risk involved,” explains Luciano, from Córdoba, Spain. “I’m not making excuses for myself,” he adds, “but the fact is I was feeling depressed, and that is why I started playing bingo. Then I looked for other games of chance. You feel great when you have a pocketful of bills and are ready to play.” Another habitual gambler, who had lost his job as a company director, was asked if he had ever considered giving up his vice. “Give it up?” he replied. “I couldn’t do that. It’s my living.”

Although the motives may vary, gamblers are certainly not a minority group. To a greater or lesser extent, 3 out of 4 adult Americans gamble; the proportion in Spain, another country where gambling is endemic, is similar. And gambling is big business. Only a few industrial corporations in the world have annual sales that exceed those generated by the lotteries in 39 countries.

Evidently, gambling’s magic is potent. But is it a harmless enchantment, or does it harbor hidden dangers? An ancient proverb warns: “He that is hastening to gain riches will not remain innocent.” (Proverbs 28:20) Is this true in the case of those who would be rich the gambling way?

[Footnotes]

The Bitter Price of Gambling

Bobby was found dead in a car parked on a north London street. Only 23 years of age, he had committed suicide.

The elderly man had been sleeping on the streets for some time before appearing at a welfare center. He was very weak, as he had not eaten for four days, nor had he taken his prescribed medicine for a heart condition.

Emilio, father of five, was heartbroken. He had been deserted by his wife and children. Now they refused even to talk to him.

A SUICIDE, a vagrant, and a rejected father: three sad cases, apparently unrelated but not uncommon in present-​day society. But each tragedy had a common factor​—an addiction to gambling.

Many compulsive gamblers refuse to admit they have a problem, and family members often cover up for them to avoid the social stigma. But every day millions of households throughout the world face anguish and despair because of this destructive addiction.

Nobody knows how many compulsive gamblers there are. For the United States, ten million is considered a conservative estimate. The numbers are alarming and are escalating everywhere as gambling opportunities multiply in country after country. Compulsive gambling has been described as “the fastest growing addiction.”

Many of the new addicts started off as casual gamblers who just wanted to “try their luck.” Then they got swept along into the nightmare of gambling addiction.

When Gambling Gets Out Of Control

What changes casual gamblers into compulsive ones? The causes vary, but in one way or another, gamblers arrive at a point in their lives when they feel they cannot live without gambling. (See box on page 7.) Some discover in gambling an excitement that is missing in their lives. One gambler explained: “It doesn’t really matter to me whether I win or lose. When I make a bet, especially if I wager more than those around me, I feel that I’m the most important person in the world. People respect me. I feel so excited!”

Others turn to gambling out of loneliness or depression. Ester, mother of four, was married to a military man who was often away from home. She felt lonely and started to play slot machines in amusement arcades. Before long, she was playing several hours every day. The shopping money was soon lost, and the problems multiplied. She tried to keep her losses from her husband while frantically trying to borrow money from banks or others to maintain her 200 dollar-a-day addiction.

There are also those whose obsession was triggered by a big win. Robert Custer, an authority on compulsive gambling, explains: “It is generally those who win early and consistently in their gambling career who become the compulsive gamblers.” Thereafter, the desire to keep winning becomes overpowering.

Superstition’s Subtle Snare

Many gamblers are swayed by hunches rather than logic. Simple arithmetic should deter a would-​be gambler if he were ruled by reason alone. To illustrate, in the United States, the chances of being killed by lightning are about 1 in 1,700,000. Winning a State lottery is at least twice as remote.

Who expects to be struck by lightning? Only an incurable pessimist. Yet, nearly everyone who buys a lottery ticket dreams of his number coming up. True, a lottery win is a more appealing prospect, but the reason many hope in the near hopeless is superstition. Their choice of favorite “lucky numbers” convinces them that they may well beat the odds.​—See box on page 8.

Claudio Alsina, a Spanish mathematician, has pointed out that if casinos and lotteries were to use letters instead of numbers in games of chance, the possibilities of winning would remain exactly the same, but the magic​—and likely a fair proportion of the receipts—​would disappear. The fascination certain numbers exert is extraordinary. The numbers 9, 7, 6 and 0 are favorites with some, while others choose their “lucky number” from such things as a birthday or a horoscope reading. And there are those who are guided by some bizarre happening.

One day a man had a disagreeable surprise as he approached the Monte Carlo casino. A pigeon flying overhead soiled his hat. That same day he won $15,000. Convinced that the pigeon droppings were a favorable omen, he never entered the casino again without first wandering around outside in hopes of receiving another “sign from heaven.” Thus, superstition deludes many gamblers into thinking that a winning streak will never end. However, this is often accompanied by the merciless grip of an obsession that controls them and that may finally consume them.

For the Love of Money

People gamble to win money, big money if possible. But in the case of the compulsive gambler, the money he wins acquires a special magic. In his eyes, as Robert Custer explains, “money is importance. . . . Money is friendship. . . . Money is medicine.” And why does money mean so much to him?

In gambling circles, people admire the big winner or the big spender. They want to be around him. Thus, the money he has won tells the gambler that he is somebody, that he is smart. The money also makes him forget his problems, helps him relax, and gives him a lift. In the words of researcher Jay Livingston, compulsive gamblers “put all their emotional eggs in the money basket.” It is a tragic error.

When the bubble bursts and he loses again and again, money becomes even more important. Now he desperately wants to get back what he has lost. How can he scrape together enough money to pay his creditors, to recapture that winning streak? Before long his life degenerates into a constant search for cash.

Such a wretched plight is a fact of life for millions of gamblers. They come from both sexes, from all age groups, and from all walks of life. And anyone is vulnerable, as can be seen by the recent surge of gambling addiction among teenagers and housewives.

Teenage and Housewife Addicts

Youngsters are easy prey for the fascinating slot machines or other games of chance that give them the prospect of quick money. A survey in an English city revealed that 4 out of 5 of the 14-​year-​olds played slot machines regularly and that most had started by the age of 9. Some were skipping school to gamble. A survey of U.S. high school students revealed that 6 percent “showed signs of probable pathological gambling.”

Manuel Melgarejo, president of a self-​help group made up of ex-​gamblers in Madrid, Spain, explained to Awake! that an impressionable youngster can be hooked by winning just one hefty jackpot on a slot machine. Overnight, gambling becomes a pastime and a passion. Before long, the young addict may be selling family heirlooms or stealing from the family, even turning to petty thievery or prostitution to finance the addiction.

Experts are also noting a significant increase in the number of housewives who are compulsive gamblers. In the United States, for example, women now represent about 30 percent of the total number of compulsive gamblers, but it is estimated that by the year 2000, this will have risen to 50 percent.

María, a working-​class mother of two girls, is typical of many housewives who have become compulsive gamblers. Over the last seven years, she has spent $35,000​—mainly household money—​on bingo and on slot machines. “The money is gone forever,” she sighs. “I just long for the day when I can enter a café with $50 in my purse and have the strength to spend it on my children [instead of putting it in a slot machine].”

Dreams That Become Nightmares

Dreams are the stuff that gambling is built on. For some gamblers, dreams of wealth are transitory, but for the compulsive ones, they become his obsession, an obsession he pursues relentlessly, into the jaws of bankruptcy, prison, and even death.

Gambling promises to fill legitimate needs​—an agreeable pastime, a little excitement, some extra money, or an escape from everyday worries—​but the hidden price may prove exorbitant, as compulsive gamblers have discovered to their sorrow. Can these needs be satisfied elsewhere?

[Box on page 7]

Portrait of a Compulsive Gambler

THE gambler keeps gambling regardless of how much he loses. If he does win, he uses the money to continue gambling. While he may claim that he can stop whenever he wishes, the compulsive gambler who has money in his pocket will not go but a few days without betting on something. He has a pathological urge to gamble.

He constantly incurs debts. When he is unable to pay his creditors, he frantically borrows more money to cover the most pressing debts and to keep on gambling. Sooner or later he becomes dishonest. He may even gamble away his employer’s money. Usually, he ends up being dismissed from his job.

Everything, even his wife and children, becomes subservient to his gambling. His compulsion inevitably leads to marital strife and may finally result in separation or divorce.

Intense feelings of guilt make him become more and more introverted. He finds it difficult to relate to other people. Eventually, he suffers severe depression and possibly even tries to commit suicide; he can see no other way out of his dilemma.

[Box/​Picture on page 8]

The Man Who Broke the Bank at Monte Carlo

CHARLES WELLS, an Englishman, visited the Monte Carlo casino in July 1891. In just a few days, he converted ten thousand francs into a million, and astonishingly, he repeated the feat four months later. Many other gamblers tried to discover his “system” but to no avail. Wells always insisted that he never had one. In fact, the next year he lost all his money, and he died penniless. Ironically, the episode turned out to be a publicity coup for the casino. It acquired an international fame that it has never lost.

The Monte Carlo Fallacy

Many gamblers believe that slot machines or roulette wheels have a memory. Thus, the roulette player may assume that if a certain sequence of numbers has come up so far, the odds are that the wheel will continue to favor numbers that correspond to that sequence. Similarly, some who play the slot machines take for granted that if the jackpot has not been won for some time on a particular machine, it must come up soon. Such wrong assumptions are called the Monte Carlo fallacy.

Both the roulette wheel and the mechanism that allots the jackpot of the slot machine work entirely by chance. Thus, what may have happened earlier is irrelevant. In these games of chance, as The New Encyclopædia Britannica points out, “each play has the same probability as each of the others of producing a given outcome.” So the odds against winning are exactly the same each time. The Monte Carlo fallacy, however, has ruined many a gambler while filling the coffers of the casinos.

Something Better Than Something for Nothing

NEARLY all gamblers end up poorer than before they started gambling. Often, even the few who do win large sums find that their winnings are not a passport to happiness.

A 36-​year-​old bachelor in Japan won $45,000 in a lottery. He intended to buy a house with his winnings, but he was the subject of so much envy and backbiting that he decided it just wasn’t worth it. To the astonishment of his workmates, he burned his winning ticket before their eyes.

Police in Florida arrested a woman who, despite having won $5 million in a lottery, plotted to kill her daughter-​in-​law. Her son said that she was frantic because of bad investments and excessive spending that had eaten away her fortune.

A Loser Who Became a Winner

Domingo was a compulsive gambler and father of five. He explains: “If I won, it was worse. I thought I was some sort of genius, and I couldn’t wait to get back to the gaming tables to prove that it wasn’t a fluke.

“When this obsession took hold of me, it was as if I were drugged. I was prepared to abandon my wife and children just to keep on gambling. Even though I repeatedly swore to my wife that I would never gamble again, I knew in my heart that these promises were worthless. I remember once assuring my wife that I was finished with gambling for good, when at that very moment, I was scheming how to obtain money to wager.

“I lost all my money, my wife’s money, and my business, and I plunged heavily into debt. Not a day passed without a wager of some sort, until something happened that forced me to take stock of myself. I began to study the Bible with Jehovah’s Witnesses. I was impressed by what I learned, but I didn’t stop gambling right away. I’m grateful that the Witness who studied with me was so patient.

“But the message of the Bible soon started to affect me. It helped me to abandon my dream world and to see myself as God saw me. It was a shock. I felt deeply ashamed, like those to whom the apostle Paul wrote in the first century: ‘What, then, was the fruit that you used to have at that time? Things of which you are now ashamed. For the end of those things is death.’​—Romans 6:21.

“Getting to know God, his name, his personality, and especially his mercy moved me to want to change my ways, to think of others rather than myself. Finally I broke free from the gambling habit completely, and my wife and I were baptized.

“Jesus said that the truth would set us free. (John 8:32) That was certainly true in my case. It was the truth of God’s Word that gave me something worthwhile to live for, gave me back my self-​respect, and brought me great satisfaction. I was even able to help one of my former gambling friends to remake his life just as I had done. When he and his wife were baptized, it gave me a greater thrill than any gambling win had ever done.

“In the last 20 years, I have not wagered anything, not even a small amount. I can’t say it has been easy, but it has not been that difficult either. And what God has given me has more than filled those needs that I sought to satisfy by gambling.”a

The Scriptural viewpoint is of prime importance for those who wish to do the will of God. And those who follow God’s counsel not only avoid the grief that gambling can bring but find that he offers them something that far excels any gambling win.

A Fortune of Far Greater Worth

Paul, writing to Timothy in the first century, said: “Instruct [them] not to fix their hopes on so uncertain a thing as money, but upon God, who endows us richly with all things to enjoy. Tell them to do good . . . , to be ready to give away and to share, and so acquire a treasure which will form a good foundation for the future. Thus they will grasp the life which is life indeed.”​—1 Timothy 6:17-19, The New English Bible.

One treasure to be grasped is a good name with God. This leads to a “life which is life indeed”​—everlasting life, the greatest prize ever offered. Jesus said in prayer to God: “This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.”​—John 17:3.

Unlike uncertain monetary prizes, the prize that God offers can be won by anyone and everyone who does God’s will. Furthermore, doing God’s will provides all the excitement anyone could wish for, and it gives the person self-​respect and a meaningful life. Meanwhile, in view of the bitter price of gambling, remember the advice of an old English proverb: “The best throw of the dice is to throw them away.”

[Footnotes]

[Picture on page 10]

Everlasting life on a paradise earth is a far greater prize than any attained by gambling

Should Christians Gamble?

SHOULD a Christian gamble to try to get something for nothing? No, for God’s Word encourages him to work to provide for himself and his family: “‘If anyone does not want to work, neither let him eat.’ . . . By working with quietness they should eat food they themselves earn.”​—2 Thessalonians 3:10, 12.

A sociologist called the lottery ‘a means by which many poor people make a few people rich,’ and this is true of gambling in general. Would a Christian want to enrich himself at the expense of those who can ill afford it? Christians should ‘love their neighbors as themselves.’ (Mark 12:31) But gambling inspires selfishness rather than love, indifference rather than compassion.

Gambling is often motivated by covetousness​—greed—​a spirit alien to Christianity. At Romans 7:7, Paul said: “You must not covet.” The word “covet” means “to long for, lust after.” Doesn’t that describe the gambler’s inordinate desire to win his neighbors’ money? Such a desire is incompatible with the Christian ideal of sharing and giving.

The Bible says: “The love of money is a root of all sorts of injurious things, and by reaching out for this love some have . . . stabbed themselves all over with many pains.” (1 Timothy 6:10) This describes the plight of the compulsive gambler, enslaved by a habit that stabs him painfully, time and again.

Jesus said that people can be recognized by “their fruits.” (Matthew 7:20) Apart from the misery suffered by compulsive gamblers and their families, gambling has long been associated with dishonesty and crime. The New Encyclopædia Britannica observes: “Much of the stigma attached to gambling has resulted from the dishonesty of its promoters.” Organized crime has been linked with both legal and illegal gambling activities. Would a Christian want to support this industry, even indirectly?

As explained in the second article of this series, gambling often involves a superstitious quest for lucky numbers, lucky days, or lucky streaks. Lady Luck has been courted for centuries by gamblers eager to curry her favor. She was called Fortuna by the Romans, and the city of Rome eventually had 26 temples erected in her honor.

The prophet Isaiah referred to a similar deity, called gadh, worshiped by apostate Israelites. He wrote: “You men are those leaving Jehovah, . . . those setting in order a table for the god of Good Luck [Hebrew, gadh].” (Isaiah 65:11) On the last day of the year, it was the custom to prepare for the god of Good Luck a table covered with various kinds of food. In this way the ancients hoped to ensure good luck during the coming year.

God did not approve of those who naively trusted in gadh, or Lady Luck, to solve their problems. Relying on luck was equated with leaving the true God, Jehovah. Rather than kowtowing to the fickle fancy of Fortune, Christians should trust in the true God, Jehovah, the One who promises us riches of far greater worth, the One who will never fail us.