Bishop Osei Bonsu’s position on on raffles and lottery, and what the Church teaches on them

Rev. Fr. Godfred Ofori asked the question – My Lord, I would like to know your position on raffles and lottery, and whether the Church talks against them.

The Answer

The Bible does not specifically condemn raffles, lottery, gambling, and betting. However, the Bible does warn us to stay away from the love of money. 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is the root of all evils, and some people in their desire for it have strayed from the faith and have pierced themselves with many pains”. Hebrews 13:5 says, “Let your life be free from love of money but be content with what you have, for he has said, ‘I will never forsake you or abandon you’”. The Bible also encourages us to stay away from attempts to “get rich quick”. Thus Proverbs 13:11 says, “Wealth quickly gotten dwindles away, but amassed little by little, it grows”. Proverbs 23:4-5 says, “Toil not to gain wealth, cease to be concerned about it; While your glance flits to it, it is gone! for assuredly it grows wings, like the eagle that flies toward heaven”. According to Ecclesiastes 5:10, “Where there are great riches, there are also many to devour them. Of what use are they to the owner except to feast his eyes upon?”. These games of chance most definitely are focused on the love of money and undeniably tempt people with the promise of quick and easy riches.

While the Bible does not explicitly mention gambling, it does mention events of “luck” or “chance”. As an example, casting lots is used in Leviticus to choose between the sacrificial goat and the scapegoat. Joshua cast lots to determine the allotment of land to the various tribes. Nehemiah cast lots to determine who would live inside the walls of Jerusalem. The apostles cast lots to determine the replacement for Judas. However, these acts do not have a direct bearing on the issue at stake.

The Catholic Church has a complex history in its moral thinking about gambling. Although the Bible does not forbid it outright, early Christians were largely opposed, with some of the earliest accounts of canon law forbidding games of chance under the pain of excommunication. According to St. Augustine, “The Devil invented gambling”. The Fourth Lateran Council (1215) forbade clerics to be even present at games where any betting was taking place. St. Francis de Sales in the 16th century addressed gambling in his Introduction to the Devout Life under the title “Of Forbidden Amusements”: “Dice, cards, and the like games of hazard are not merely dangerous amusements, like dancing, but they are plainly bad and harmful, and therefore they are forbidden by the civil as by the ecclesiastical law”.

What would the Bible say about casinos and lotteries? Casinos use all sorts of marketing schemes to entice gamblers to risk as much money as possible. They often offer inexpensive or even free alcohol, which encourages drunkenness, and thereby a decreased ability to make wise decisions. Everything in a casino is perfectly geared towards taking money in large sums and giving nothing in return, except for fleeting and empty pleasures. Lotteries attempt to portray themselves as a way to fund education and/or social programmes. However, studies show that lottery participants are usually those who can least afford to be spending money on lottery tickets. The allure of “getting rich quick” is too great a temptation to resist for those who are desperate. The chances of winning are very small, which results in many peoples’ lives being ruined.

Some people claim to be playing the lottery or gambling so that they can give the money to the church or to some other good cause. While this may be a good motive, the reality is that few use gambling winnings for godly purposes. Studies show that the vast majority of lottery winners are in an even worse financial situation a few years after winning a jackpot than they were before. Few, if any, truly give the money to a good cause.

In the light of all this, what does the Church today say about lottery, gambling, raffles, etc.? The Catechism of the Catholic Church succinctly expresses Catholic teaching as follows:

“Games of Chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others. The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement. Unfair wages and cheating at games constitute grave matter unless the damage inflicted is so slight that the one who suffers it cannot reasonably consider it significant (CCC 2413)”.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church then, games of chance and wagers are not bad in themselves. It is the emotions that come from them that the church feels negative about. Greed, coveting, selfishness, indulgence, power, worship of money – all of these things can control the mind and soul. Once these emotions come into play, God’s law is violated. These emotions must have been St. Augustine’s justification for saying, as we have seen above, “The Devil invented gambling”.

According to the Catechism then, as long as the games are played in moderation, so that people are not enslaved by the addiction and evil emotions, and are conducted fairly so that no one is cheated, robbed, or unjustly taken advantage of in any other way, Catholics may take part in them. My own view of the matter, for what it is worth, is that in view of the many dangers that accompany these games of chance, it is better for the Christian not to engage in them.

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