“Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.’”
– Jeremiah 29:7
As the Kentucky General Assembly’s filing deadline for new bills approached at the start of March, a number of gambling bills were filed.
Among them was Senate Bill 213 and House Bills 606 & 610. These bills seek to legalize expanded gambling on fantasy contests, sports, and online poker.
Ironically, gambling advocates acknowledged that gambling can do harm and also filed House Bill 609, which would create a “Gambling Assistance Fund” to help those individuals and families destroyed by gambling.
The Family Foundation has long opposed the expansion of gambling in the Commonwealth for the simple reason that we don’t believe it is God-honoring public policy. We are to seek the welfare, or wellbeing, of our communities and neighbors.
Gambling targets the family, athletes will become pawns and targets, government will be corrupted, and the vulnerable will be destroyed.
Even gambling advocates have recognized that the expansion of gambling would mean the need of a designated “Gambling Assistance Fund,” with hundreds of millions of dollars to help manage the harm gambling will do to our neighbors. Surely causing such harm isn’t good policy.
LET US PRAY . . .
Father, we ask that You would open the eyes of our legislators and that they would see that the expansion of gambling is not the answer to Kentucky’s financial problems. Let them see that it creates more problems than it solves and preys on our most vulnerable citizens. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
