I live in Arizona which is one of the many states that has legalized sports betting. It seems that we are being inundated during sporting events (and oddly my TV only gets sports channels. Really weird. As a result, this is all I get to watch) with sports betting commercials.
And I mean inundated. If this were a theology discussion, we would say that sports betting commercials are omnipresent.
Now, I suppose that many turn a blind eye to sports betting. There must certainly be greater evils in the world than people betting a few of their hard-earned dollars on a game to enhance their watching experience.
One of the problems is that many people who have never gambled before are now participating in sports betting.
After all, sports betting gives the sports fan one more thing to cheer for while watching the game (“Not now honey, I bet our kids college fund on this game and its almost over”).
When it comes to sports betting, I suspect that there is another lure. Namely, many sports fans suppose that they know what they are doing. Just like those who routinely bet on horses. They study and prep and make “educated” bets. So, I suppose that many who have taken up sports betting have the naïve conviction that they “know” what they are doing.
Now, I am sure that others are justifying their new addiction by asserting that they are merely playing for fun. They have their limits. They stick to it. And they only bet what they can afford to lose.
Interestingly, the NFL sponsors commercials advocating that bettors, “set your limits,” “track your bets,” and “only bet what you can afford.”
This has all the earmarks of the warning label on the side of a cigarette carton.
Does it not strike you as odd that those who profit off our gambling are paying money to sponsor commercials (or adverts for our British friends) in which they are telling us to be careful with their product and not overdo it? (if you look carefully at sports betting commercials, the fine print at the end lists several phone numbers for crisis counseling).
Deep down, of course, I believe that they know full well that this “noble” act of concern for our well-being is nothing of the sort.
In fact, for them, it is simply another opportunity to advertise their product. And they get to do so under the guise of being a noble institution.
Research suggests that sports betting may be twice as likely to form an addiction than other forms of gambling. The fact that in-game betting is easy and accessible on most apps seems likely to encourage someone who is clearly going to lose a bet to “make up for it” and try to get their money back with an impulse wager.
Yet, these “consumer beware” commercials end up portraying them as an industry that cares that we don’t develop such addictions, all the while knowing that many will, and knowing that they will profit even more when we do.
One of the things that struck me, as a NT scholar, is the advertisements by Caesar’s sports betting. “You are all Caesars” proclaims their slogan.
I am a bit bewildered here.
Do they not recognize the fact that Rome was a brutal empire that ruled with a heavy hand and a fierce ruthlessness? Those who ruled from Rome, along with the few client kings and rulers scattered throughout the empire, lived lives of incredible luxury. And they did so at the expense of virtually everyone else.
The famed pax Romana (“peace of Rome”) was peace at the expense of the conquered. This might not sound too grotesque so allow me to put this into a bit more perspective.
Rome and its elite lived in almost unparalleled luxury. Such persons did not work, or they worked very little. They simply ruled and they prospered while everyone else labored; often in intensely dire conditions. All to provide for Rome’s opulence.
Less than 3% of the population enjoyed the fruits of the labor of others. The “others” constituted as much as 90% of the population. These “others” often lived in intense poverty and ever-growing indebtedness in order to feed Rome’s voracious appetite.
NT scholar Richard Horsley depicts the gross injustices of the Roman empire:
The early Roman Empire was a society where gleaming cities were rising in some places and children went hungry in others. It was a world where no luxury was enough for some great aristocrats and public celebrities, and where even the basic necessities of life lay beyond the grasp of the urban and rural poor. It was a world where dreams of limitless material wealth and technological progress danced in the heads of the great entrepreneurs and in the rhetoric of ambitious politicians-and where the looming nightmares of family breakdown, crime, sudden loss of livelihood, and untreated and untreatable illnesses plagued the minds of the vast majority.[1]
The book of Revelation depicts Rome[2] as a Beast empowered by Satan (Rev 13:2). Rome is also a whore who sits atop the Beast (Rev 17:3).
It is in light of Rome’s devastation upon creation and humanity that an angel calls out to the people of God, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins” (Rev 18:4).
As a Christian leader, I want to sound the alarm and I hope others join in. Sports betting may help increase the entertainment of the event for some. But it encourages others to stroll down a dangerous alley from which they may not recover.
As with most societies, the wealthy prosper at the expense of others.
“You are all Caesars.” Sorry, but Caesar is the last thing I want to be.
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[1] Richard A. Horsley. Message and the Kingdom (Kindle loc 51-57).
[2] I do believe that in the book of Revelation Rome is the embodiment of all empires in history (past, present, and future). Therefore, when I use “Rome” here I mean “empire.”
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