Gambling with Eternity Summary

Warning: Gambling is a dangerous activity and topic. It can be addictive. The following articles use losing at the Casino as an extended metaphor to living in a fallen and sinful world. Most of these articles describe the terrible effects of casinos on life and communities. Furthermore, there is nothing in the Casino Industry that honors the Eternal, but much that dishonors Him and fuels the lusts of the flesh.

Statement: Wagering, betting, and gambling are not sinful by themselves ... but the casino industry can be called evil because it purposefully causes people to lose bets and pulls together many sins and lusts of the flesh into one place.

What Does the Bible Say about Gambling? The Bible does not directly say much about gambling. In fact, there is nothing to suggest that gambling in-and-of-itself is a sin. However, it can be closely associated with many sinful activities. Where money is involved people will covet, lie, cheat, steal, even idolatry. There is a powerful reason why both the casinos have such strong security and the people have such strong gaming commissions and oversight committees to ensure things are legitimate and no cheating or illegal activities are done by either side.

Gambling With Eternity If we gamble our lives on philosophies and worldviews, rather than the truth of the Bible and the need for a Savior, then we risk our physical and spiritual well-being in this lifetime and we completely lose out on eternal life. Following after knowledge, magic, money, power, fame, beauty, entertainment, and many other such things may bring some form of pleasure in this world, but it cannot bring peace to the soul nor a loving relationship with the Eternal.

Randomness and Statistics Understanding randomness will let you know patterns do not exist and betting strategies are of limited help. Statistics will give you an understanding of long term averages and more realistic expectations from wagering. Neither one can tell you what the next card, number, or spin will be.

Is This Entertainment? The goals of entertainment and winning are incompatible at the casino. For the small percentage of people who have enough money that it will not hurt them to lose it all, perhaps it can be entertainment. A small portion might also be able to enjoy the stage performances, the meals, the alcoholic beverages, the escorts. Some criminals may find it a good place to launder money. For mathematicians, it might be an expensive way to play with statistics. However, for the majority of the people who are trying to win money, this is a dreadful place as losing money is not fun and the number of games that can be played where you can even begin to attempt to win are very few in number and require strong discipline and skills.

How Does the Casino Industry Work? Casinos are designed to be businesses for profit. They are not there to lose money. They take games of random chance (like roulette, craps, blackjack, and slots) and by knowing the odds and adjusting the payback they are able to create a 'House Edge' that ensures they will make money over time. In effect, this means they are purposefully setting the customers / players up to lose money. They advertise themselves as entertainment and often show people have great fun ... but it does not meet such expectations because losing money simply is not fun.

House of Darkness

What Is Casino Culture? The public side of casinos can vary a lot depending on location. In touristy areas, a casino will attract wealthier customers and therefore have higher table minimums, be placed next to a nice hotel, and close to a restaurant like a steakhouse. In small towns, many clients may be local people and the table or slot minimums can be smaller. Either way, the people going inside tend to be ready for fun, the people inside are obsessed with the action of the game and suspicious of anyone around them, and the ones leaving often looked either dazed and stoic or noticeably about to cry. It is a highly competitve environment, with continuous noise, staff with an unusual cold formality, and the slightly concerning ever present security guards in the background.

What Are the Guidelines for a Casino Budget? First, make sure you have discretionary income to use - that is the money left over after taxes, rent, food, utilities, clothing, savings, etc. When you enter the casino, the 1% rule is a good place to start [ex. if you want to play a $10 table, have at least $1,000 dollars available]. If you really want to stretch your dollars, enter tournaments as a small buy-in may give you many more times in chips, will give you significantly more play time, and the competition will show you where you are weak so you improve. Lastly, remember the casino will try everything it can to get you to spend more than you plan ... so do not take any extra money, credit cards, or other source of further funding.

Psychological Manipulation

What Are the Best Ways to Play Casino Games? If you are playing for entertainment, then you can simply play with the games and betting strategies you enjoy. If you are playing to win, you have very limited options involving card counting, dice control, and discipline with must-hit-by slots ... skills that most people do not sufficiently have for significant wins. Even with these skills, winning at these games requires a long-term strategy, highly repetitive actions, and a significant starting bankroll.

What Are the Best Betting Strategies The best betting strategies do not react to winning or losing a previous hand; instead, they are focused on the long-term averages and variance. Remember, even with a good strategy, you are only marking the risk you are willing to take with randomness ... it has no bearing on the house edge. Many bad strategies exist because of faulty understandings of statistics and randomness.

What Is Advantage Play? Within the casino, advantage play is using a skill like card counting or dice control to actually change the odds in your favor. Similarly, in living life, we can change 'the spiritual odds' in our favor by seeking the blessings that come from having a Savior and playing the rules of the Kingdom of Heaven rather than having the curses that come by playing the rules of the world and the Kingdom of Darkness.

*Defying the Odds

This page is under construction. My apologies for any misspellings, repeated text, missing references, etc. Please visit again later for a more complete treatment of this topic.