Should Christians Play The Lottery?

I’ve heard a lot of talk about the Powerball jackpot over the last week. Most of it has been people dreaming about what they’d do with so much money. I’ve also had a fair amount of people ask me if it’s ok for a Christian to participate. Here are my thoughts according to what I see in scripture. Take them or leave them.

First: Is playing the lottery a sin? The Bible doesn’t directly condemn gambling (keep reading, there’s more). That said, there are principles we can pull from scripture that help us answer the question.

Some could argue playing the lottery reveals someone to be a lover of money. For the person who habitually plays the lottery or drops stupid sums of money on a pipe dream, that may be true, but to conclude the condition of a person’s heart because they buy a few tickets for a billion dollar jackpot is a task I’d prefer to leave in the hands of God.

Instead, I think the best way to look at it is through the lens of practicing Godly financial management and I’ll do it through one question Christians should all ask themselves:

“Am I managing the resources well that God has already entrusted me with?”

Scripture is pretty clear everything we have comes from God and belongs to Him in the first place (1 Chron 24:19; Psalm 24:1, James 1:17). We’re not the owners of what we have. We’re the brokers of God’s stuff and there is a connection to the way we manage what we already have and what else we are given (Matt 25:14-30). This doesn’t imply wealthy people are good stewards and poor people aren’t. Just recognizing a principle that God sees how we manage what we’ve been given and he responds in different ways.

So, if it all belongs to Him, how am I doing with managing what He’s given me? Here are a few thoughts to consider before buying that “winning” ticket:

1. Check your debt. Aside from a mortgage or rent (and in some cases, school), debt is usually a good indicator that you live above your means. Scripture is clear that debt enslaves us to the lender (Prov 22:7) and it was never God’s intent for his people to live in debt.

The Old Testament shows how Israel reset their debts every 7 & 50 years (Deut 15:1, Leviticus 25) in order to keep things equitable for all of God’s people and they created opportunity for the less fortunate by providing the ability to harvest the perimeters of fields (Lev 23:22). In the NT, people gave generously to help each other so no one was in need (Acts 2:45).

I understand there are situations where people come upon hard times and they incur small amounts of debt, but if I don’t have the money to settle my debts, I don’t have the money to play the lottery either.

2.Do you tithe to your church? Scripture teaches us that the first 10% of our income goes back to God as an act of obedience and personal confession that He is the Lord of our lives.

Tithing is a clear principle taught in both the Old and New Testament (Gen 14:20, Lev 27:30, Malachi 3:10, Matt 23:23, Luke 11:42). The New Testament actually takes it to a level beyond the tithe and speaks of living in an attitude of extravagant generosity, giving in proportion to what we earn. This doesn’t mean to do less than 10%, it challenges us to do more (2 Cor 8:7, 11).

When God is the Lord of our life, His priorities become our priorities. If I can’t afford to tithe, I can’t afford a lottery ticket.

3. Consider its purpose. We need to remember the lottery wasn’t created to make people rich. It was created to give the government another stream of income. Many of the lottery regulars are low-income folks working hard to survive with the hopes of cashing in on that big jackpot. As a result, the system helps keep poor people poor.   Do I want to support a system that promotes that?

Even if you’re lucky enough to win, history and stats show that lottery winners are some of the highest targeted victims of scammers and thieves. Just some basic research will confirm countless stories of how the windfall of money ruined many people’s lives instead of improving them.

So, if you’re a Christian and you’re going to play the lottery, I hope it’s with discretionary money because you’re going to be wasting it. The chances of winning are about the same as flipping a quarter and getting “heads” 28 times in a row (go ahead and try it. I did too).

Personally, I’d rather put my money into Kingdom-based priorities. I know $40 will give a Haitian child a year of education and $6,000 will build a home for a family who has lived in a tent for 5 years. What if we pooled our money for these things? Kingdom-based priorities put God in charge of the resources and trust Him to do supernatural things. The benefits are eternal and the odds of winning are guaranteed.