Gambling Addiction & Recovery Support Group
Compulsive gambling is an urge or addiction to gamble despite harmful negative consequences or a desire to stop. A preferred term among many professionals is problem gambling, as few people described by the term experience true compulsions in the clinical sense of the word. Problem gambling often is defined by whether harm is experienced by the gambler or others rather...
Wow - TheNewWay's post on "Does the Bible Condemn Gambling" really got me thinking. The part of coveting another person's "stuff". She posted: "Centuries later, the apostle Paul repeated this command for Christians: You must not covet. (Romans 7:7) Might a Christian who seeks to win what another person loses be guilty of covetousness?"
What really hit me with this was - "another person's losses". I never really gave this a whole lot of thought before. It really makes me sick to my stomache when I now think this through. Whenever I did happen to win, and I did win a few jackpots - I tended to think - "Finally I am winning some of the casinos money" Or it is about time I get some of "my" money back. Wait - whose money was it? It wasn't the casino's money - it was my money, the old lady sitting at the machine scraping her coin purse for the last few cents money. It was the money from the man sitting there with his oxygen mask on while his wife sat at the slot machine next to him helping him to push the buttons. I took the money that the poor girl in the wheelchair had so ardously put in and painfully pushed the buttons, hoping for that jackpot. The man with the torn trenchcoat, the woman in her fancy clothes that was angry that she put in $2,000 and barely got anything in return. It was the money that belonged to all those people lined up at the atm machine to get out more. It wasn't the casinos money at all - it was money that all those other sad people, just like me so willingly put in the machine hoping for more.
How do you make amends to all of those people? I guess the best way is by not going back and asking for forgiveness for hurting them and forgiving ourselves.
I do so appreciate the new insight I am glad I have that vision in my head now to help keep me from going back!
What really hit me with this was - "another person's losses". I never really gave this a whole lot of thought before. It really makes me sick to my stomache when I now think this through. Whenever I did happen to win, and I did win a few jackpots - I tended to think - "Finally I am winning some of the casinos money" Or it is about time I get some of "my" money back. Wait - whose money was it? It wasn't the casino's money - it was my money, the old lady sitting at the machine scraping her coin purse for the last few cents money. It was the money from the man sitting there with his oxygen mask on while his wife sat at the slot machine next to him helping him to push the buttons. I took the money that the poor girl in the wheelchair had so ardously put in and painfully pushed the buttons, hoping for that jackpot. The man with the torn trenchcoat, the woman in her fancy clothes that was angry that she put in $2,000 and barely got anything in return. It was the money that belonged to all those people lined up at the atm machine to get out more. It wasn't the casinos money at all - it was money that all those other sad people, just like me so willingly put in the machine hoping for more.
How do you make amends to all of those people? I guess the best way is by not going back and asking for forgiveness for hurting them and forgiving ourselves.
I do so appreciate the new insight I am glad I have that vision in my head now to help keep me from going back!
you are on a role,
you have started such an insightful and thought provoking thread.
I just loved the way you captured the people in the casino, all vying for the same golden apple and how you take that to a whole new level with your thoughts on whose money it really is anyway.
Then you circle around and bring it all into focus with the idea of making amends and the idea of covetousness.
I enjoyed seeing your analysis and the end result.
I do so remember us all trying to "see" what others did and what happened before we sat down and "looking back" and seeing someone else win "our" jackpot. What greed and covetousness.
I never looked at it that way, I think when gambling I so looked at it as Bernie23 mentioned earlier that I was not hurting anyone other than myself. Maybe that isn't really so ???
and then as Christians, Catholic or not, we are supposed to set an example by our actions, thoughts, words and deeds.
I am by no means religiously educated to express more than an uneducated opinion but this is helping me to understand more.
thank you
But as I have gambled half of my lifetime away, I can see things more different now. Those money are bad money, it involved with many tragic and story story, sometimes even people's life. I should not be proud of taking it even if I win.