Driving the Las Vegas strip at night, you cannot help but be overwhelmed by the flood of flashing lights emanating from casino after casino. Rolling along slowly in bumper-to-bumper traffic, one is struck by the concrete and steel images of watery Venice, Paris’s Eiffel Tower, ancient Rome, Egypt’s pyramids, swashbuckling pirates and tropical oases. The sidewalks overflow with thousands of starry-eyed pedestrians who casino-hop in hopes of striking the jackpot—momentarily trading in their dreary suburban lives for a touch of the lifestyle of the rich and famous.

Last year, over 37 million people visited this gambling mecca, 2 million down on the pre-crash record set in 2007. Even in hard times, Vegas remains the fifth most popular tourist destination in the world; over 100,000 of those tourists were married here. Vegas currently manages more than 850 daily airline flights transporting over 2.5 million passengers per month through its airport, making it the eighth-busiest airport in the world. Nine of the 10 largest hotels in the world are located here, and within the city limits alone it has maintained an average 90 percent occupancy year round in its 120,000 hotel rooms.

This is Las Vegas—Sin City—once a seeming jewel of prosperity and opulence—America’s gambling capital and the home of the nation’s love of fast money. But the city is fast losing its luster. It’s a testimony to the end result of the gambling phenomenon that grips so many in its grasping claws. The Telegraph recently reported (May 16):

Residential property prices in Las Vegas itself have fallen by around half in three years, while across the state homes now change hands for an average of just $115,000 (£70,000).Tourism and the casino industry fueled growth but in the end have left few winners.Recent years have seen double-digit percentage drops in gambling revenue from the iconic Las Vegas Strip, not helped by the number of businesses now choosing less ostentatious destinations for conventions.Residential property prices in Las Vegas itself have fallen by around half in three years ….

Today, 48 of America’s 50 states conduct one form or another of legalized gambling within their borders. These range from lotteries, casinos, fast money riverboats, Indian casinos and video lottery slot machines, to horse and dog racing. In addition, there’s the growing market of Internet gaming. Gambling is now commonly broadcast nationwide as a legitimate sport.

Over 20 million Americans are problem or pathological gamblers. Americans account for almost half of worldwide gambling expenditure (about $50 billion). The nation spends more on the lure of fast money than on recorded music, theme parks, video games, spectator sports and movie tickets combined. Overcominggambling.com reports that “The average debt incurred by a male pathological gambler in the U.S. is between $55,000 and $90,000 (it is $15,000 for female gamblers).”

So pervasive is the national addiction that just last year Los Angeles Times journalist Jack Dolan shockingly reported, “California welfare recipients are able to use state-issued debit cards to withdraw cash on gaming floors in more than half of the casinos in the state, a Los Angeles Times review of records found. The cards, provided by the Department of Social Services to help recipients feed and clothe their families, work in automated teller machines at 32 of 58 tribal casinos and 47 of 90 state-licensed poker rooms, the review found.”

Most of you reading this article are not gambling addicts. However, even minimal amounts of wagering in any form carries with it the big question of motive. Gambling is based on risk. Chance is the predominant determining factor. Its seductiveness lies in its promise of effortless fast profit. It is driven, in every case, by greed. Our new booklet Solve Your Money Troubles! has something to say about this.

That great educator and ambassador for world peace, Herbert W. Armstrong, was a man who knew both grinding poverty and the fruits of hard work in lasting success. He recognized the root cause of man’s greed. “Coveting money and that which money will buy is merely the manner of manipulating Satan’s way of life—‘get’ instead of ‘give’—take and compete instead of cooperate—self-concern and self-gain with desire to win, instead of love toward God and love toward neighbor” (Good News, September 1986). Read the Autobiography of Herbert W. Armstrong for more on the valuable lessons for successful living that this man’s life exemplified.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “For the love of money is the root [‘a root’ is the correct translation] of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows” (1 Timothy 6:10). The attitude behind gambling is simply the attitude of get—acquiring material gain at the expense of someone else with minimal effort. It springs from raw human nature, not the mind of the all-loving, universe-creating God.

Was Paul saying that being wealthy is sin? No! Anciently, Abraham, Job and others were very wealthy. Even the Apostle John wished health and prosperity upon God’s people (3 John 2). Wealth of and by itself is not evil; it’s the attitude behind grasping for wealth that God is concerned about. The lustful craving for wealth ensnares one in the unrelenting grip of greed.

God’s character does not allow lust or greed. As Mr. Armstrong so often wrote, His character is based on His law, the law of love, of outflowing concern one toward the other—the way of give. This is the attitude we should have when it comes to finances, money and wealth.

Proper business practices involve a profit in return for services rendered, but not at the expense of someone else’s loss. Under God’s law, both sides should gain by the transaction—it should be mutually beneficial. In the same manner, the principle of insurance coverage promotes the sharing of expenses to cover accidental losses—based on the give principle.

This is the principle behind God’s attitude toward gambling. Simply put, gambling breaks God’s law. The very motive of get first for the self destroys the building of God’s very own nature, His way of give, His character in us. As Christ Himself said in Acts 20:35, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” A successful business transaction starts with giving—rendering goods or services in return for equitable reward, payment for the services rendered or the goods provided.

The way of get, greed and gambling is not only high risk, it is addictive. However, the way of give is risk-free! Jesus Christ taught that the way of give produces an automatic return, a true blessing: “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:38). If you seek to live by the principles of God’s way of life, all of your physical necessities will be provided (Matthew 6:33). True success depends on making sure you have your spiritual and physical priorities set straight.

We’ve often heard the adage, “An honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay.” God’s law agrees with this principle of a just reward for work rendered (1 Timothy 5:18). Gambling stifles the character trait of productive effort—honest hard work.

“A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent” (Proverbs 28:20). An attitude of greed will eventually drive you toward poverty (verse 22). Time after time the stories have been told of people who were financially wiped out after gambling their life’s savings away.

In Luke 19:12-27 and Matthew 25:14-30, we are shown via Christ’s parables of pounds and talents that God’s way involves developing and increasing that which is entrusted to us. Both spiritually and physically, the lesson is that to gain a reward requires personal effort.

Gambling teaches those who enter its snare to rely on “Lady Luck,” on pure chance, in acquiring wealth. There is no real effort invested, just the play against the enormous odds of losing stacked against the mere chance of a win. It is far more profitable for us to direct our time, effort and attention to acquiring wealth by honest means—and, even more, the true, everlasting riches of God’s soon-coming Kingdom (Matthew 6:19-21).

My father-in-law referred to Las Vegas as the city of “Lost Wages”—and he was right. For all of the instant millionaires in the world, there are countless more millions of losers, those who have had their livelihood swept out from under them. Even more problematic is that the love of money provoked by human lust and greed chokes off character growth and the way to a happier life.

The Creator of humankind gave man incredible wealth at the beginning (Genesis 1:28-31). He had the vast wealth of this world’s resources in the palm of his hand. All he had to do was to obey God’s law to keep it and truly profit by it all. But man chose to disobey his Maker, and the rest, as they say, is history.

A vital component of God’s law that leads to economic success is the law of tithing: “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings” (Malachi 3:8). God challenges us here, stating that if we rob Him of tithes and offerings He will curse us with the curse—utter destruction.

God only requires one tenth in payment for nine tenths of what He has given us. Was there ever a more benevolent deal? For a 10 percent investment, God guarantees a 90 percent return!

Every good thing you have comes from God (James 1:17). Do you give back to God—making Him your best and primary investment? Request our free booklet The Financial Law You Can’t Afford to Ignore.

God is making it personal here—for you and for me: “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” (verse 10). You see, giving God His tithes and offerings in support of His work is a far more wise investment than frittering it away by gambling on a hope, chance or hunch of winning. It’s the difference between a sure investment and a poor bet.

As the U.S. financial Titanic forges headlong into the economic iceberg there is a guaranteed way for you to avoid being financially drowned in the looming catastrophe. Why be drowned in debt and commit the addictive sin of gambling? It’s a living law that the love of money is a root of all evil. Conversely, the love of God is truly the root of all good.

Don’t let the bright lights of gambling’s lure entice you into the grip of greed. As America falls rapidly from its once global economic supremacy, at the same time leading the world in its $110 billion addiction to gambling, God is looking for those special few in this world who will flee the risky business of gambling and invest in Him and His work, which gives vastly greater and much more rewarding returns. For, to be truly successful, you must put God first in your life. Make His work your treasure; support the very work of God that is freely sharing this precious knowledge of true success—of man’s God-given incredible human potential—with the world, and then you will reap unspeakable blessings that will ultimately be never ending!