A lot of good points are being made here. Todd is right about moderation, that's for sure. When I worked in casinos I saw a coworker crying because they had no baby food in the house and their husband had bet $5,000 on a Super Bowl (it lost).
This is a story I wrote as an assignment for a writers course. Tghose in the "Bible Belt" will get a real feel for this, I'm thinking espeicaaly triggs and rgdrnr. Convenience marts in Kentucky sell discoubt cigarettes, booze and lottery tickets and their windows and bulleting vboards are peppered with notices of church meetings and revivals.
Here's the story:
Pastor John Ezra was a third generation preacher. In Kentucky, as in most of the South and bordering states, the clergy preached fire and brimstone sermons. In a tobacco and distillery economy some subjects were taboo. This was a given. Because of this, most preachers had something besides tobacco or drinking that they got very passionate about. Pastor John Ezra was no different, with him his passionate sermons were on gambling.
The church he pastored was facing some difficulties. Membership had dropped off, families have moved away. The area was experiencing a decline in population. One of the regulars in his church was Tommy Finley. Tommy was there almost every Sunday and enjoyed the fire and brimstone sermons, seeing some valid points in them -despite Tommy=s love of playing the lotto most every week. Tommy had been involved with race horses and casinos in the past and knew a little more about gambling than the average person.
Pastor Jon and Tommy had met for lunch and were discussing a tobacco mart down the road. In Kentucky tobaccos stores are a very bi business, as even with the latest tax increases the tax per pack and per carton still made Kentucky cigarettes less expensive than the cost in surrounding states. These stores sold discount cigarettes and other tobacco products, discount liquor, and lottery tickets. This was on top of the other knick- knacks common to convenience stores along highways.
"You gotta love it", Tommy said as he looked at the Pastor.
"What's that", asked Pastor John?
"Well, just look around you. We see cigarettes, liquor, flyers for horse farms that raise race horses, lottery tickets, and look on the window. Flyers for upcoming events at two Baptist churches."
"You don't see that as kind of ironic, or see the humor in it?", asked Tommy.
"Gladly take in tobacco money or liquor money from your congregation and preach against the lottery?"
"It's gambling", said Pastor John.
Tommy said, "Look, I'm not talking about casinos and enticing people to play their whole paycheck on video poker, trying to win an $1100.00 Royal Flush. Unlikely that would change anyone's life - but the casino owners. As they make more and more. I'm talking about working stiffs playing a buck or two on a lottery ticket because it gives them just a little bit of hope. You see this everyday in casinos, when people walk out, most of them look angry. Of course they do, most of them lost. When people leave a lotto place, especially when there's a huge jackpot, they walk out with hope on their face."
"It's still gambling, A Pastor John said.
"I'm not saying it isn't," remarked Tommy. AI=m saying far better to risk a dollar or two trying to change your life than risking paycheck after paycheck to get even. Read a lottery ticket, the remark about proceeds from the lottery benefit all Kentuckians. Proceeds from the casinos go to the casino corporations, most out of state. Big difference."
Pastor John said, "So you're opposed to casinos but pro-lottery."
"Not exactly", said Tommy. "'m just saying casinos promise a bunch of spin off business. Then after they're up and operating, they open their own restaurants which takes away from the businesses in town, to the point they eventually close."
"The thing is", said Tommy, Aif three people from your church were to come in here right now, and one buys cigarettes, one buys a bottle of booze, and one buys a lottery ticket, you=d preach to the one with a lottery ticket and say hello to the other two."
"Well yeah", said Pastor John.
They had finished lunch and Tommy said he wanted to get one more cup of coffee and make some phone calls. Pastor John said he had a few stops to make and went out to his car and left.
Tommy got another coffee and grabbed a newspaper, noticing that the Powerball jackpot was
$75,000,000. He remembered the old adage about how even a blind hog could find an acorn every now and then and decided to spend a couple of dollars to benefit all Kentuckians.
Powerball is played by picking five out of 53 numbers in the top box of a powerball slip, and 1 number of 42 on the bottom. Hitting the five of five on the top portion wins $100,000. Adding the winning powerball number to those five takes the prize up by millions, literally.
Tommy chose five numbers, and the powerball number. He repeated one of the first five as the powerball number, just on a hunch. He thought about how much he=d give to Pastor John and his church if he won, but to do that the media would make a big affair out of it. Not only that, the taxes would really be sticky. He couldn=t give that much away anonymously. Tommy came up with a better idea. H gave the clerk three dollars and said, ACan you play this same ticket three times?@. The clerk said, ASure@ as she knew people always played tickets for other people, especially of they were out of state people. As she handed him the tickets and said, AGood luck@ he gave one back to her and said, AThis is for you, I want someone rooting for those numbers@. Tommy thought 75 million for one person was a bit much, splitting it would be better.
She thanked him and he left, taking the other two tickets.
The Saturday night of the drawing, Tommy watched it on TV and one by one the numbers were selected. 7 - 24 - 27- 29 - 41 and the powerball, 24. Tommy checked his tickets. (So did the store clerk at her home!) Then he checked and rechecked.
Tommy didn't sleep much that night, neither did that store clerk! He made it a point to get to Pastor John=s church on time, sat there and listened to sermon on the lottery. He kind of had hunch that's what it would be on, as Pastor John often used those lunches as ideas for the next Sunday=s sermon.
When it came time for the offering basket to be passed around and it came to Tommy, he took out a $20 bill and wrapped it around the other winning lottery ticket and dropped them in the basket....
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As you can tell this was writtne awhile ago and has some of the at the time lottery vs casino issues in it, just pass over that .
When the river boats were planned in some areas and found a lot of oppossitioin, some of it turned out to be from local churches feeling their bingo games would be threatened. Speakss volumes.
Had a little troulbe converting this form word so pardon the typos.