The casino stands as the great and most visible monument to the massive scale of the Gambling Industrial Complex in America. Just look across much of the American landscape, and you will see the glaring and garish lights of the casinos that serve to attract gamblers. It was not always so.

The nationwide explosion of legal gambling may well be the most underrated dimension of America’s moral crisis. With the expansion of state lotteries, casino gambling, and new technologies, the gambling industry is poised to grow even further in the next decade.

Jacob Weisberg of Slate.com offers a very interesting essay on this nation’s proclivity for moral hypocrisy on the issue of gambling. In “Don’t Bet on It,” Weisberg argues that Americans are torn between wanting to curtail gambling and wanting to profit by it. In many states, this means the rationalization through political means of some kinds of betting games over others.

Jonathan V. Last of The Weekly Standard writes of the incredible expansion of gambling in American culture — and suggests that gambling is becoming just another form of entertainment [See "Losers' Poker," posted October 28, 2005].

The newspaper headlines certainly command attention when a record Powerball jackpot of at least $350-million is at stake. As a matter of fact, the gambling interests are counting on lots of attention — and hoping for even greater sales. You can count on a banner headline when the winner is announced, and a new record jackpot is probably right around the corner. Nevertheless, Christians must remember the moral issues at stake. In the end, the lottery makes us all losers.

The nationwide explosion of legal gambling may well be the most underrated dimension of America’s moral crisis. With the expansion of state lotteries, casino gambling, and new technologies, the gambling industry is poised to grow even further in the next decade.