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MANSFIELD — On Friday, Mansfield Mayor Timothy Theaker signed a proclamation declaring March as “Problem Gambling Awareness Month.” Presenting the proclamation to Reverend Denny Finnegan and Reverend Floyd Allen, Theaker’s proclamation stated that “the social costs of problem gambling are about $7 billion per year in the United States from incarcerations, bankruptcies, and other addictions associated with the vice.”
Rev. Denny Finnegan
According to the proclamation, pathological gamblers are between 3-4 times more likely to be arrested and/or spend time in jail as a result of crimes including domestic violence, child abuse/neglect, theft, and fraud.
Serving as Pastor at Philippian Community Church of GOD in Christ on 275 Newman Street, Pastor Allen believes people should take to heart the warning that Hebrews 13: 5 gives.
“The Bible says to ‘Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have,’ because GOD has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
Allen, recalls a time when he was asked to assist a person enslaved in the love of money. “I remember when a high-salaried employee from General Motors regularly asked me for money so he could play the lottery. While he made twice the amount of money that I made, he would ask me for money so he could spend $100 on lottery tickets a day. He was unable to control his habit, his habit controlled him. He forgot that GOD and not the lottery, was the one who provides for his every need.”
According to a 2016 study by the National Endowment for Financial Education, seventy-percent of lottery winners end up going bankrupt within several years. Similarly, several years from now, gambling addition counselors fear addiction associated with sports wagering could go thru the roof. Last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled a federal law that previously forced states to keep sports gambling bans on their books as “unconstitutional.”
Reverend Denny Finnegan, Mansfield First Presbyterian
“The potential expansion of government-sanctioned gambling is an unoriginal “quick fix” for financial income that does not look for the true needs of the community. Our society should legalize things that improve the quality of people’s lives, not destroy. ”
“I think the Bible verse ‘All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be dominated by anything’ (1 Cor. 6:12) undoubtedly can apply to gambling,” says Pastor Denny Finnegan of Mansfield First Evangelical Presbyterian Church on 399 South Trimble Road.
“The potential expansion of government-sanctioned gambling is an unoriginal “quick fix” for financial income that does not look for the true needs of the community. Our society should legalize things that improve the quality of people’s lives, not destroy. “
Speaking of lives, one person sports gambling almost destroyed was Ken Geisige. “In 1984, I was arrested in one of the largest gambling busts in north central Ohio . I was a ring leader of a $3.5 million dollar football gambling operation when several wives contacted the police. Their husbands had lost their entire paychecks on weekend betting and were stealing from other family members. Their addiction was destroying not only their life, but their families as well.”
“I went from being the bookmaker of a black market gambling enterprise, to reading the Bible and getting set free. GOD’s Word transformed my life.”
The tables have turned for the redeemed Ken Geisige. He later led efforts to prevent an off-track betting parlor from coming to Mansfield in 2006. Geisige now heads up a furniture ministry with Berean Baptist Church.
Another similar effort may be needed in the future to protect Ohioans from problem gambling addiction.
The Bottom Line:
The Bible says in Mathew Six, “You cannot serve both GOD and money.”
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