By Michael Prewitt
“I figured I was just one number away from getting rich,” said Jay, a salesman. His gambling career started with Lotto and Win 4. His bets were only about $10 a week at first. Then, one week he hit on five of six Lotto numbers and won $2,000.
His spending on lottery tickets spiked to $10 a day. Before long, he was betting $100 a day, taking out cash advances on his credit cards to fuel his obsession.
“I was driving around…buying tickets in different stores, [so] it wasn't obvious how much I was playing,” Jay admitted. It never occurred to him that his gambling was taking control of his life.
In a year, running up debts of more than $20,000, he began waking up with sweats. Guilt over the way he was secretly wasting his family’s income became oppressive. Jay took out a life
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See Gal. 5:1; 2 Peter 2:19; Rom. 6:16; Titus 3:3.
“Gambling Addiction Statistics,” www.rehab-international.org, accessed Feb. 2, 2012.
Prov. 13:11. See also Prov. 21:25.
See Eccl. 9:11.
William A. Galston and David Wasserman, “Public Interest,” Newsday, Apr. 1, 1996.
Ibid.
Jer. 17:11.
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