Mormonism: The Consequenses of Gambling

In Mormonism, Gambling is when someone tries to earn money by doing nothing, and it has been around for thousands of years, causing many people to lose hard earned money. The LDS Church teaches about the evils and consequences of gambling. Gordon B. Hinckley stated, "Gambling is to be found almost everywhere and is growing. People play poker. They bet on horse races and dog races. They play roulette and work the slot machines. They gather to play in bars, saloons, and casinos, and, all too often, in their own homes. Many cannot leave it alone. It becomes addictive. In so many cases it leads to other destructive habits and practices." People who are addicted to gambling, and are in debt, start committing crimes, like theft, burglary, embezzlement, scamming, drug trafficking, and fraud. Many people who end up doing these things pull themselves deeper in the hole. Not only are they in debt to loaners, but now they go to prison, and often pay a big fine, causing them to go even further in debt. Gambling seems like fun, playing poker with friends, spinning the roulette machine, throwing dice, placing bets on events, and seems like every body's doing it, but in the long run, it can absolutely ruin your marriage, your lifestyle, your reputation, your credit score, and even your will to live.

Another popular form of gambling is the lottery. It is when a gambling company, or even just an event sells tickets with numbers on them. They have prizes, ranging from small prices of tokens, toys, items cash, to grand money prizes of millions of dollars. How these companies make their money however, is that they have prizes that total to lets say, $120,660,500.  If you include around fifty million people paying an average of ten tickets worth a dollar each, then the company will still get a profit of  $379,339,500, and there will be millions of people who end up with nothing but a worthless piece of paper.  I know that this is just a random number of the prizes and the amount of people purchasing an x amount of tickets, I have never done lottery and never will.

Even if the winner of the grand prize is excited from paying only five dollars to get ten million, the winners troubles are far from over. There are many true stories of people winning the jackpot, and saying it was one of the worst things that happened to them. People they don't know come begging for money. One letter said, and it's a true story, "I need that money more than you." Other winners end up losing all of their money in more gambling, scammy or faulty investments, honest investments that turned sour, stolen from them, or mostly due to mindless spending. There are a lot of better things to do in your life than gambling, and more profitable too.   There are many stories and tales of people who sell everything; cars, jewelry, possessions, etc.  They would even spend their rent, insurance, taxes, and food bills to satisfy their gambling habit.  There are many children who go hungry, divorces filed, and even suicides occuring.  It is a continuing problem that is rising dramatically.  In 1965, the total spent was around $2 billion.  In 2006, the number raised to a dramatic $986 billion.  This includes all types of gambling; lotteries, casinos, slot machines, etc.