In 2021, Americans spent upward of $100 billion on lottery tickets—making it the most popular form of gambling in the country. State governments promote lotteries as public goods, but just how important that revenue is to the broader state budget and whether that’s worth the negative trade-offs it has for poor people and problem gamblers remains an open question.

It’s hard to think of a government-sponsored activity that has gotten as much attention as the lottery. It’s an enormously profitable enterprise for states—they make about 50%-60% of their money in ticket sales, while paying out the rest for administrative and vendor costs—and it’s widely accepted that its popularity is due to a combination of messages, including that the proceeds are going to help children or some other worthy cause. But that argument fails to take into account the underlying psychology of why people play.

For many people, money is a source of power and security. They’re drawn to the lottery with promises that it will allow them to get the things they want most in life. In many cases, those desires are deeply rooted in a covetousness that is against biblical commandments (see Exodus 20:17 and 1 Timothy 6:10). And while the majority of players don’t have complex quotes-unquote systems that tell them how to win, many do believe that if they could just hit the jackpot, all their problems would disappear.

In the early days of American history, lotteries were a common way for states to raise funds for projects and programs. Benjamin Franklin held a lottery to pay for cannons that would protect Philadelphia during the Revolutionary War, and Thomas Jefferson tried to hold one in Virginia to help with crushing debt. But these efforts proved unsuccessful, and in the years after the Revolutionary War, the popularity of lotteries fell sharply, as did non-lottery gambling overall.

A major reason for this decline was the emergence of a new type of gambling: casinos. The advent of casinos meant that people no longer had to travel long distances to participate in a game, and that the odds of winning were more favorable than in the past. The rapid growth of the casino industry also led to a rise in gambling addiction and other serious problems, which were exacerbated by a weak economy.

Despite these drawbacks, the state lottery continues to thrive. Its popularity is largely due to the fact that it’s promoted as a public good, and research has shown that the perception of a lottery as a public good is independent of a state’s actual fiscal situation. However, as long as state government has a gambling addiction, lotteries will remain popular. That’s why the church needs to speak out against it. The time to do so is now. The upcoming World Lottery Summit will feature several speakers on this topic, including the Rev. David Clotfelter, senior director of research at the National Council on Problem Gambling and author of The Church Against Lottery.