Is playing the lottery a sin?

Our lottery is a reason we don't have a sales tax. The lottery money goes to schools, the forestry service, and the Indian reservations.

It would be a sin to play the lottery to the point where we are no longer good stewards, but with all things, moderation. I see no sin in buying a ticket every once in a while, and to even give them in birthday cards & such.

 

Is it not just simple covetousness that prompts us to desire a quick windfall of money that we did not work for?

 

The lottery is a tax on people who are not good at math

 

I don't think it's a sin but I'm not comfortable playing it myself.

 

It can be.

 

I believe that if I played the lottery, I would be making the statement that I don't have faith that God can provide for my needs. Speaking only for myself, playing the lottery even once is sin.

However, I refuse to hold other Christians to my standard. I think my standard as neither higher nor lower, than say Bro. Curtis, who clearly has no issue playing once in a while.

 

Can a "Christian" support placing a "TEMPTATION" in front of someone who isn't able to "RESIST", and could you then deny responsibility for the harm it caused to the person or persons???

Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:

2Jo 1:10 If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed:

11 For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

1Ti 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

 

Well, well, well, Brother Curtis!!! If thats the way you "see it"---then Blackbird will be wanting to "see it" in the birthday card you send him this next year!!!

PS---no tricks!!! Just the ticket, please!!

Your buddy,
Blackbird

 

so, is it a sin if you scratch off the tix you find in the birthday card?

the sin is when you are coveting the prize money.

 

I actually think that the sin in playing the lottery is poor stewardship, which would make the lottery no more or less sinful than blowing all your money on QVC. Not that I would know this by personal experience, you understand!!

 

Another excellent reason not to buy lottery tickets. That was one of the main reasons I quit smoking. (I never could find Thou Shalt Not Smoke!)

 

No. In and of itself, it's not a sin if the money being spent is budgeted discretionary liesure money. However, if you're taking money that should be used for essentials, such as groceries, bills, rent, etc, and/or you are obsessed or preoccupied with the topic, then it is likely a sin.

Personally, I don't play the lottery. I just don't have an interest in it.

 

It is a poor choice.

I call it (and other forms of gambling) a tax on the foolish.

Gambling is trusting in a false hope.

The results of gambling do not lead to a holy life.

 

There are countless testimonies of people who say they wish they had never taken the money, that it ruined their lives.

 

But see, qwerty???? Would it be a sin for Bro. Curtis to send Brother Blackbird a lotto ticket as a birthday card gift???(see above posts by Bro. Curtis and Blackbird!!)

As I see it--the lottery is a tax on people who are bad at math---and it is a form of unfair taxation--because Bro. Curtis has exemplified that his marvelous state in which he resides has no state tax---reiterating on the fact that the lotto is the tax---but yet --- if you don't "play" you don't "pay" tax----so the marvelous state of Montana is being unfair to those who "play" to "pay" the tax!!

See???

 

I really don't like receiving a lottery ticket as a gift, which I get from time to time from well-meaning co-workers. My reason is, since it is more likely to not be a winner, the person has really given me nothing. And since it was not my choice, I've been cheated out of a gift.

 

I wouldn't say you were cheated ut of a gift. The gift wasn't yours to give. The lottery issue aside, we shouldn't presume that gifts are in any way "owed" to us, or that we deserve them. If we do, they're not really gifts, are they?

 

I hear what you're sayin' John, but I can see Debby's side too. If the friend or coworker really thought the lottery ticket was a winner would they be giving it to her?

We shouldn't get upset at other people for the gifts they give us, true....but it might be a good point towards not being the one that GIVES a lottery ticket as the entire gift.

 

Let's be honest. If the ticket has been a winner, would the giver have asked for it back? Also, we tend to get stuck on the "millions" issue. Most lottery winners win $1 to $10, and there are thousands of those in every drawing. I think we get stuck on the "millions" issue out of our own greed. What saith that about us?

For example, play blackjack a few times a year. At a $2 table, I will statistically win $4 in any two hands (which means I'll win $2 per hand, about the same that I put in). Hardly a qualification of covetousness. But those who speak out against gambling typically denouce the big payoff games, not the even money games, even though the even money games are common. I suspect they're ignored by denouncers because they don't support their point.