RaShan Frost is the teaching pastor at Centerpoint Church in North Charleston, South Carolina. At a recent summit on sports gambling he told the audience, “The problem with sports gambling is that it intensifies covetous and idolatrous desires within our hearts. Covetousness is the vice that fuels the gambling industry.”
While compulsive sports gambling begins as an individual issue, he said, its “ripple effects” are felt throughout society.
Research reveals sports gambling often leads to elevated use of alcohol and illicit drugs, as well as mental health problems and family violence.
He noted research showing an upset loss in a sporting event leads to an 11 percent increase in domestic abuse by young men.
Frost encouraged Christian leaders to ask two questions in evaluating the morality of sports gambling: “Does it glorify God? And does it promote love of one’s neighbor?”
Echoing Frost’s call to consider the societal impact of gambling, Greg Davis, president of the Alabama Citizens Action Program, noted the suicide rate among compulsive gamblers is higher than in any other form of addiction.
He told the audience that sports gambling is “like crack cocaine” in its predatory nature.