Christian Casino Dealer?

[Lochie]

Hi Im new to this and just needed advice.
I am currently a student in need of a part time job. I have been offered a job as a table dealer at a casino. It is a very prestige casino which is known for its customer service and presentation. It would look good on my resume. Also i think i would enjoy the work, i love card games and meeting new people, plus it pays well and has good flexibility. However i am unsure if this type of work is suitable for a christian. Would other christians not approve or would God not approve?

 

[ToddNotTodd]

Hi Im new to this and just needed advice.
I am currently a student in need of a part time job. I have been offered a job as a table dealer at a casino. It is a very prestige casino which is known for its customer service and presentation. It would look good on my resume. Also i think i would enjoy the work, i love card games and meeting new people, plus it pays well and has good flexibility. However i am unsure if this type of work is suitable for a christian. Would other christians not approve or would God not approve?

You could make the case that since gambling addiction is a very real thing, dealing cards is tantamount to enabling people to lose money they can't afford to lose. So you would, in a roundabout way, be contributing to the pain and suffering this person and their family would suffer.

 

[Desk trauma]

I'm not a Christian but to my knowledge there is no biblical prohibition on gambling.

 

[FireDragon76]

Other Christians might not approve.

I'd only take the job if you think you can't find other work that pays well enough.

Different Christian denominations have different stances on gambling, whether it's something Christians should be engaged in or not. I personally would be somewhat uncomfortable selling alcohol or working in a casino, just because I've seen how destructive alcohol and gambling can be in friends and family.

 

[SkyWriting]

Hi Im new to this and just needed advice.
I am currently a student in need of a part time job. I have been offered a job as a table dealer at a casino. It is a very prestige casino which is known for its customer service and presentation. It would look good on my resume. Also i think i would enjoy the work, i love card games and meeting new people, plus it pays well and has good flexibility. However i am unsure if this type of work is suitable for a christian. Would other christians not approve or would God not approve?

"Brand new member"
with yet another moral dilemma.

Do unto gamblers, as if you were going to sit
down with each of these same people for breakfast
the next morning and they get sharp knives.

 

[Dave-W]

Do unto gamblers, as if you were going to sit
down with each of these same people for breakfast
the next morning and they get sharp knives.

LOL!!!!!

 

[SkyWriting]

Hi Im new to this and just needed advice.
I am currently a student in need of a part time job. I have been offered a job as a table dealer at a casino. It is a very prestige casino which is known for its customer service and presentation. It would look good on my resume. Also i think i would enjoy the work, i love card games and meeting new people, plus it pays well and has good flexibility. However i am unsure if this type of work is suitable for a christian. Would other christians not approve or would God not approve?

Please re-post your message without the words "I" or "me"
and don't make any references to yourself or your experiences.
This should solve your dilemma.

 

[dayhiker]

I agree there is no prohibition in the Bible about gambling so can you do this job in faith. Paul said what ever is not of faith is sin.

 

[Strivax]

I do not think there is such a thing as 'ethical gambling'. That said, all gamblers are fools. The only time you should risk your money is when you know, for absolute certain sure, that the odds are stacked in your favour. And then it isn't a gamble, just a calculated risk. That's what the casinos do, and why they can pay well for unskilled and semi-skilled labour.

Of course, if you, as patron, decide to pay a casino some amount of $/hr for the adrenaline rush it provides you, that's a separate calculation. But I can't help but think that there must be better ways of generating adrenaline, like trying to save the world.

Cheers, Strivax.

 

[Albion]

Hi Im new to this and just needed advice.
I am currently a student in need of a part time job. I have been offered a job as a table dealer at a casino. It is a very prestige casino which is known for its customer service and presentation. It would look good on my resume. Also i think i would enjoy the work, i love card games and meeting new people, plus it pays well and has good flexibility. However i am unsure if this type of work is suitable for a christian. Would other christians not approve or would God not approve?

Yes, you can do this job with a clear conscience, but there are some Christians who would disapprove. They, or those similar to them, would also disapprove of ever taking a drink, wearing dresses that don't come to the ankle, going to movie theatres, and much more in that vein. So, the question would be, "Would it affect you in particular if those Christians--but not most Christians--disapprove?" As far as a gambling addiction is concerned, most people go to casinos for entertainment and are prepared to pay a few hundred dollars, if it comes to that, for the experience. If they'd preferred dinner and a ticket to a sporting event, they'd spend just as much, so this isn't automatically the moral issue that it's often made out to be.

 

[FireDragon76]

It's not just fundamentalist and holiness groups that question the morality of gambling. Mainline churches (most of which would be fine with dancing and going to movie theaters) have also been critical of the expansion of the casino industry in recent years.

Gambling is not inherently sinful, however it is not necessarily a wise stewardship of God's gifts:

The fact that gambling is not intrinsically wrongful does not, however, mean that gambling is a
matter of indifference. The Christian's freedom is quite different from the freedom that the modern world proclaims. Where others might assert their liberty to act in any way they see fit, so long as it is not prohibited, the Christian's freedom is always the freedom to be a good steward of God. In addition to the stewardship of our time and resources, we are also called to be stewards -- caretakers -- of one another. Cain's question to God is met with the Christian's response: we are our brothers' and sisters' keepers

(taken from a 1998 ELCA paper on gambling)

http://stoppredatorygambling.org/wp...an-Church-in-America-The-Gambling-Picture.pdf

 

[SilverBlade]

There shouldn't be any issue with it at all. You're just a casino dealer, a person performing a job. No different than any other job.

I also don't believe you are 'enabling' the gambling either. Those people would be at the tables or the slot machines regardless if you work there or not. They enable their own gambling habits, you're just there for a job.

 

[Moxie123]

It's kinda like being a Christian attorney or a Christian IRS agent. Now that's an oxymoron!

 

[Dave-W]

It's kinda like being a Christian attorney

Like those with the ACLJ? I would link their site but since they ask for $$ it violates site rules. I will let you look them up.

From a recent email:

FBI Director Comey was asked about statement after statement that the former Secretary of State made to Congress - under oath. He testified that her sworn statements were "not true."


That's perjury - lying to Congress - a federal crime.


It's just one more example of the Obama Administration's spreading virus of deception. But we're taking direct legal action against the corrupt FBI, State Department, DOJ, IRS, and DHS. Take action now.

And in an email received a few minutes after posting the above:

Christians are being exterminated: beheaded, enslaved, crucified.

Today we have a major opportunity to defend them at the U.N.

Syria’s Christians – 66% decimated. Iraq’s Christians – 82% destroyed or displaced. The numbers are staggering. The pain is unbearable.

If we don’t act, more Christians will die. It’s our Christian duty – our legal obligation – to defend them.

We’re aggressively expanding our largest legal advocacy effort in defense of Christians facing genocide. We’ve filed a legal demand with the State Department that could force it to act. We’re preparing a letter to the presidential candidates to put them on record.

In just a few hours, we’re sending a critical legal letter to the U.N. Genocide Office demanding action to 1) stop the genocide and 2) protect Christians.

 

[Sketcher]

I'd put it in the same category as a Christian bartender, with the caveat that bartenders in my state are supposed to turn away patrons if they appear too drunk. I don't know that a dealer at the casino would be supposed to turn people away after they spent X dollars.

 

[Dave-W]

I'd put it in the same category as a Christian bartender,

the church I grew up in would deny that such a thing was possible since smelling alcohol = the sin of drunkenness and cost one his salvation immediately. In their teaching.

 

[Sketcher]

the church I grew up in would deny that such a thing was possible since smelling alcohol = the sin of drunkenness and cost one his salvation immediately. In their teaching.

Yeah, there are some extreme ones out there that don't know or care about the definition of the word "drunk."

 

[LaSorcia]

Casinos make a lot of their money through cheating people, meaning they don't pay odds when someone wins. They also often hand out free alcoholic beverages.

People love to remember that St. Paul said, "everything is permissible to me", but forget he said, "but not everything is advantageous." He certainly didn't mean we could do whatever we wanted to do or that immoral things become moral if we think they are okay.

 

[joshua 1 9]

Hi Im new to this and just needed advice.
I am currently a student in need of a part time job. I have been offered a job as a table dealer at a casino. It is a very prestige casino which is known for its customer service and presentation. It would look good on my resume. Also i think i would enjoy the work, i love card games and meeting new people, plus it pays well and has good flexibility. However i am unsure if this type of work is suitable for a christian. Would other christians not approve or would God not approve?

The question is what would Jesus do? Is this the sort of job that Jesus would take. For me I do not want to do anything that could or would harm others. For example, I would not work in a convenience store because I would not want to sell tobacco or alcohol to people when it maybe harmful for them.

James said: "Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." So if we are going to be an example for others then we need to hold ourselves to a higher standard. Many are called but few are chosen. I believe many are called to the priesthood but few take their priesthood serious. Peter tells us: "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." 1 Peter 2:9

Salvation is not based on works, but there will be rewards and if we love people we will want the best for them. We will not want to do anything to harm them. Gambling is perhaps not any worse then selling food. There are people that are going to overeat and we should do what we can not to harm others and to help them to do what is right for them, good and healthy.

 

[Greg J.]

The fact that no one has referenced a passage of Scripture, and personally that I could argue it was OK or a sin means that many would probably consider this a disputable matter (Romans 14:1).

I'm aware of at least one scholar who showed that gambling is detrimental to the local region in many indirect ways. On the other hand, it also provides a lot of jobs to people. It depends on whether people are gambling for entertainment, as a source of income, or hoping gambling will rescue them from their misery. In reality all of these attend gambling establishments.

It may depend on your knowledge of Scripture and relationship with God. Is it wrong in your mind or OK in your mind?

One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. (Romans 14:5, 1984 NIV)

It's been a long time since I looked into this subject, but iirc, the basic argument against gambling is that it can be a form of not trusting that God will provide for you. It is a form of hoping for riches without working for them (which is sometimes is a sin and sometimes isn't).

... everything that does not come from faith is sin. (Romans 14:23b, 1984 NIV)

If you turn away from this job opportunity because you think it may not be what God wants for you, you should expect a blessing from him (as well as heavenly reward).

My personal stance is that I wouldn't take the job because I don't want to be supporting that industry. It is connected to lots of things that are more clearly sins.