What Do Churches Feel About Lotteries/Bingo Games?

Here at the Mary Ward Centre, our main focus is to support the growth in faith as well as freedom of each person through proper education, spiritual ministries, and a series of other works of mercy which be think best match the current needs of the times we live in. we strive to facilitate the spiritual, as well as psychological and leadership development of the youth. And for this, we have created a spacious and peaceful environment that will help perpetuate our teachings. The high quality services we have to offer are not only professional and helpful, but they also come at affordable rates for our classic accommodation, well-endowed conference rooms, and spacious dining halls with sumptuous meals.

You might have heard of churches hosting lottery or bingo nights, and you might wonder how does that work exactly, given the controversy around gambling and the Bible. Since you are contemplating the thought of joining us here, and you might want to know what our approach to these activities is, we recommend you get some extra information here.

Does God View Gambling As Moral?

This is one of the essential questions that people who believe in God and struggle to live a good live as a Christian will often ask themselves. Gambling or gaming in general has turned into such a popular activity during recent years thanks to the simplified access to gambling venues, including lottery venues online. If, a few years ago, one might have had to put in a little extra effort to buy a paper lottery ticket for a national game like the UK National Lottery, things have changed dramatically today.

We can now use web platforms hosting your favorite national or international lotteries out there. Places like Lottery Master for example allow passionate lottery fans or people who have never played a game of lottery in their life to quickly create a new player account, select tickets for the games they want to play, and mark them with their favorite numbers. They even offer the Quick Pick option that automatically generates complex and unique string of numbers that could increase one's odds of winning, especially when it comes to numbers higher than 31. But since playing the lottery is so easy nowadays, let's see what does the Bible have to say about it.

• The word "gamble" itself is not found in the Bible, but the idea of a lottery is found many times, but usually in the context of choosing a person or a day for a specific task.

• The Bible only authorizes three morally legitimate ways for money to pass from one owner to another. And gambling is not part of them. They refer to the law of labor since, according to Luke 10:7, “The laborer is worthy of his wages”. We are advised to not try to live off the labors of others. Since gambling appears to undermine the Biblical work ethic, it is not advised to embrace playing the lottery.

• There is however the scenario in which all lottery winnings of a person participating in a small, church game of lottery or bingo will be donated for a good cause, to help those in need. Thus, the reason why some churches will accept these forms of gambling on their grounds.

• Most of the big lotteries donate around half of their annual income to various charities. In fact, many lotteries were originally set up to help fund local charitable or educational programs for the underprivileged. For this reason, there is a great debate about if playing the lottery is considered gambling or giving to charity.