Rethinking the Lottery

The lottery is a form of gambling in which people pay money for a chance to win a prize, usually money or goods. Its name comes from the Dutch word lot, meaning “fate” or “destiny.” People use the lottery to raise money for a variety of purposes, including building schools, paying for medical care, and funding public works projects. It can also be used to determine who will receive government benefits such as housing or kindergarten placements.

Most modern lotteries involve some sort of computer system for recording the identities and amounts staked by each bettor. Tickets are then shuffled and reprinted for the drawing, which is often conducted by video cameras. People may buy individual tickets or groups of tickets, and they can choose their own numbers or have them randomly selected for them by a machine. The winnings are then distributed among the ticket holders based on their chances of winning.

Super-sized jackpots drive lottery sales, and they earn the games a windfall of free publicity on news sites and TV newscasts. But these prizes do more than stoke hopes of a quick fortune: They also discourage the hard work and long-term planning that God desires for His children. Instead, the Bible instructs us to “gain wealth honestly, and in the way of wisdom” (Proverbs 23:5). Lazy hands make for poverty, but diligent ones bring wealth. That’s why we need to rethink the way we approach the lottery.