The lottery is a form of gambling in which people pay to enter a random drawing for prizes. Prizes can be cash or goods. Players buy tickets with numbers, and the winners are chosen at random by computers or machines. People play the lottery for a variety of reasons, including the hope that they will win a life-changing sum of money. Some believe that winning the lottery will solve all of their problems and give them a better life. The truth is that the odds of winning the lottery are very low. The Bible teaches that winning the lottery is not a wise investment of one’s money or time. It is also against the biblical principle of covetousness. People should work hard to earn their money, and they should not be deceived into thinking that winning the lottery will solve their financial problems.
The idea of distributing prizes by drawing lots has a long history. The earliest public lotteries were organized by the Roman Empire for city repairs and other civic projects. In the 15th century, a lottery was held in Bruges, Belgium, to raise funds for town fortifications and to help the poor. It may have been the first lottery to offer money as a prize.
Today, state lotteries are run like business enterprises. Revenues typically grow quickly after a new lottery is introduced, but then level off and sometimes even decline. The industry responds with new games to maintain or increase revenues. But these innovations obscure the regressivity of lottery playing. Despite the marketing message that everybody plays, lottery players are disproportionately lower-income, less educated, and nonwhite. Moreover, they spend a significant percentage of their income on tickets.
In an antitax era, state governments have become dependent on lottery profits. This dependence makes state government officials anxious to keep lottery revenues up, and pressures are high to introduce new games. But a new game can also distort the lottery’s original purpose and undermine social welfare goals. A few examples include a lottery for units in a subsidized housing complex and a lottery to place students in a particular school.
The real reason why lottery games are so popular is that they dangle the promise of instant riches in an era of inequality and limited opportunities for social mobility. Sadly, many people fall for this trick. The result is a growing number of people who will never be financially secure, and more who will continue to live in a cycle of poverty. This is not what God intends for his creation. Instead, we are to be stewards of our resources and earn our wealth honestly through work, as a gift from God (see Proverbs 23:5). Only then will we truly be rich in His glory, and not through the purchase of a false hope. In the end, only those who trust in the Lord will be truly wealthy (see Psalm 119:8). And only those who trust in Him will be able to sleep well at night (see Ecclesiastes 5:12). Amen.
