If you are a sports fan, it is nearly impossible to miss the heavy promotion of online gambling that now seems to be an integral part of broadcasting. With the football pregame shows, segments are focused on which bets the various analysts recommend placing, offering their expert insight to help you beat the odds, should you decide to place a wager. With the trend towards legalization of sports gambling and the proliferation of online gaming sites, Americans are placing bets at an alarming pace, with the American Gaming Association reporting that 57% of American adults participated in some form of gambling in the last year.
The rise in legalized gambling activity comes at the same time that affordability concerns seem to be a major talking point in this nation. Somehow, as rising costs are impacting our disposable income, more people are justifying throwing their hard-earned dollars away on bets that they will not win. Evidently, the American public either doesn’t believe or care about the overarching truth about gambling – the house always wins.
Unfortunately, the inclination to gamble does not reflect well on the wisdom of the American public, and I’m concerned about the broader implications on our society. If the reason for placing a bet is the belief that you will win, then you must believe that you are smarter than the system. The evidence that you won’t win is easy to see, if you will look and understand. The billion-dollar casinos, the professional sports sponsorships, and the lobbying money all came from the pockets of gamblers who bet against the house and lost. Yet the gaming companies are counting on us to get swept up in the emotion of placing a bet, hoping that we might come out on the winning side and get some extra cash, perhaps while seeing our favorite team win or our favorite player hit some performance threshold. The success of the gaming industry depends on us acting on emotion instead of logic. How else do you explain taking money that you don’t have and putting it on a wager that you will likely lose?
The gaming industry isn’t the only place where we see this sort of decision-making happening today. Our politicians push narratives aimed at emotions, hoping that you won’t first gather all the facts before deciding which lynch mob you are going to join. And remember the big push to guilt you into reducing your carbon footprint? Why isn’t that ever mentioned now that the data centers required for the onslaught of AI are going to significantly increase the global power requirements? Again and again, it seems that the fundamental assumption is that the American people are not going to think critically about an issue before taking a position.
The One who is the most powerful in the universe does not want us to act rashly or solely on the emotion of the moment. In Luke Chapter 14, Jesus tells the audience what the cost of following him will be, and then tells two parables about the need to count the full cost of a venture before beginning, to avoid looking foolish. The message is clear – don’t make a commitment based on emotion but instead weigh the costs and then make an informed decision.
We are all capable of making informed decisions, if we are humble enough to accept that we don’t know everything, and then patient enough to seek the information that we need. Gaming companies want you to think you can win, and politicians want you to think that they are the only ones who have the right answers, because their respective power and influence is shaken when we stop being influenced by emotion and start thinking critically about the decisions that impact our lives. Yes, taking the time to gather the facts may mean that you miss out on the opportunity to place a bet or impress others with your position, but if that is the case, at least you are guaranteed not to be wrong!
Peace and blessings – Pastor Aaron