As Southern Baptists, we believe that all forms of gambling go against the teachings and principles of God’s word concerning the stewardship of the resources he has given us. We believe the negative social influence will outweigh any cause that proponents say will benefit.
Joe MackAs of this writing, there are several disturbing gambling bills in process at the State House. Senators Glenn McConnell, Bob Ford, Jake Knotts, Mick Mulvaney and John Land would like to see gambling expanded in our state. They have offered bills that would amend our laws to allow “social gaming and casino night events as a fundraising activity of limited duration by a nonprofit organization.” Limited duration is not defined nor mentioned outside the first paragraph of S535. There are too many issues in this one bill. The conglomeration of subjects includes (1) board type games that do not include gambling, (2) gambling in private homes, and (3) nonprofit organization gambling fundraisers.
With this many issues lumped together in one bill, the overriding suspicion is that there will be too many unintended consequences perpetrated upon the pubic and within the General Assembly. The shame and taint from Lost Trust and the scourge of video poker should have been lessons not easily forgotten. The law was slightly changed several times such that, all of a sudden, video poker slipped in under a back door loophole. We fought a tough fight to rid our state of the video poker blight. We don’t need to go through that again.
Gambling in homes has come up because some people in Charleston hosted a poker night that was raided. Prominent people were arrested that night and the host claimed it was a “friendly game.” The game night was advertised on the Internet, there was a cover charge and the house took a cut from all winnings. They even hired dealers. That is not a friendly game around the kitchen table. Passing this portion of the bill could open that back door again.
The final component of the bill addresses charitable gambling for nonprofit organizations. There are 20,480 nonprofit organizations in South Carolina. That number includes charitable, religious, or fraternal groups. It includes any faction that meets the IRS criteria to be classified as a 501c3. Currently, there are 26 types of 501c3 in the IRS code. Oversight of unauthorized groups holding casino nights would be almost impossible. Finally, we should not be enticing, educating, training and desensitizing our citizens and our children to gambling games.
Pray that gambling would not expand in South Carolina. Beyond praying, please contact your senator and ask him to vote against all gambling bills this year. We must not waiver in our stand to protect our families from any manner of harm – physical, emotional or financial. Thank you for accepting the role of a prayer warrior in today’s culture.