Stop Predatory Gambling

The Faith Community in America at Its Best

by Les

Kentucky pastor  Hershael York was invited to deliver the prayer before Gov. Steve Beshear’s budget address on Tuesday. York spent half his 80-second prayer talking about government’s failed policy of predatory gambling.

York told Baptist Press he felt burdened to speak out.

“I want to frame this as a moral argument, not a fiscal or financial one, said York, pastor of Buck Run Baptist Church in Frankfort and professor of Christian preaching at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky.

York’s time at the podium certainly began as a normative legislative prayer, as he asked God to grant the legislators and the governor wisdom in their decisions. Seconds later, he switched gears.

“Help us to admit that we cannot truly love our neighbor as ourselves and then scheme to get his money by enticing him with vain hope,” York prayed. “May [legislators] not lead this state to share profits from an industry that preys on greed or desperation.”

He continued: “Help us to foster salaries and not slot machines, to build cars and enable jobs — not license casinos and seduce the simple into losing what they have. May their greatest concern not be that we get our share of the family’s losses, but that we foster a sense of hope and justice that creates opportunity and leads to success.”

After an “amen,” York walked away from the podium, and legislators knew they had just heard a prayer that likely would make the news.

“To some I’m a hero and to others I’m an idiot,” York told BP. “I try not to get too worked up over either one.”

“I’ve seen firsthand tragedy in my church and in my ministry from people who have been addicted to gambling,” York told BP. “There are so many innocent people hurt by it. … One man in my church embezzled over $100,000 because of his gambling habit. I had to stand with him before a judge as he was sentenced, and our church had to help his family out. And now he and his family are outspoken opponents of gambling.”

York preached a revival at another church in Kentucky where he learned of other harm from gambling.

“There I met a lady whose husband committed suicide because of his gambling debt,” York recounted. “There was another lady who has to sleep with her keys at night so her husband won’t get the car keys and sneak across the river to West Virginia to the casinos and slot machines. A lot of people that I know personally have lost thousands of dollars. Gambling is a tax on the poor, it’s a tax on the simple.”

There are social security recipients, York said, who go across the river into Indiana the first of each month, sit in front of slot machines and “just gamble away their money.”

“If you bring casinos in the state, then you’re going to create new gamblers,” he said. “It’s not like you’re just building it for the ones who are already gambling. You’re going to create new addicts.”

Gambling, York added, is one of the issues where conservative and liberal pastors can unite.

“All of us in the trenches [are] caring for people … we all know this is bad,” he said. “I’m going to rally every pastor in the state that I can against this.”