As Illinois lawmakers eye online gambling as a potential financial lifeline, experts warn the state is heading down a dangerous path of market saturation and overreliance on gambling revenue. With billions in pension liabilities and growing debt, is expanding Big Gambling the solution—or just a predatory wager against the best interests of the state's citizens?

I still remember a particular airline flight I took in high school. I was heading out of Colorado after an academic event, dutifully reading a literature assignment to make the most of the travel time. Part-way through the trip, however, I put a bookmark in my volume and got into conversation with a lady sitting in my row.

Pete Rose was the all-time hit leader in Major League Baseball. However, he was gambling on the sport while playing. In the wake of the Pete Rose gambling controversy, he was banned from baseball on August 24, 1989.

It was 1995 and I was hosting an afternoon talk show in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. A buzz had formed around an announcement that the Pittsburgh mayor had planned to conduct a feasibility study of proposed riverboat gambling on the city's three rivers. This study would generate estimates of how many outsiders would travel to Pittsburgh to gamble.

Online sports gambling has been around for a while, but it has really put the pedal to the floor over the last few years. This is partly because the activity enjoys much more legal leeway now than it has in the past. Only just a few years ago, states were forbidden by federal law from operating or sponsoring sports lotteries, but the Supreme Court struck down that law in the case Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association (2018).

It must be terribly difficult to be rich. I wouldn’t know. And with God’s help, I never will. I don’t dream of winning the lottery. I don’t buy tickets. I don’t envy those who win. Or who are wildly successful in their endeavors. Including athletes. Wealth changes people. Often not in a good way. Sudden wealth is worse. The recipient is clueless on spending.

These bills would massively increase the addiction risk currently posed by online gambling avenues like sports betting, creating new and even more deadly opportunities for secretive 24/7 gambling activity that prey on those prone to addiction.

There are currently 11 casinos operating in Illinois: Rockford, East Peoria, Alton, Rock Island, Elgin, Metropolis, Aurora, East St. Louis, Joliet Hollywood, Joliet Harrah's and Des Plaines. There are 5 more being planned or built, in Danville, Carterville, Homewood, Chicago and Waukegan.

When discussing covetousness, Christians often cite 1 Timothy 6:10 which states, “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils.” However, many often forget to mention the preceding verse: “But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.” The Bible clearly warns us about the evils inherent within the relentless pursuit of wealth, and this teaching should be applied when individuals consider gambling. As a college student who has watched a number of friends become compulsive gamblers, I hope and pray that my peers will internalize the Lord’s advice and refrain from engaging in such a destructive habit.

I write this article as a concerned observer, not as an expert on the phenomenon of gambling and not as someone who ever struggled with gambling. I have simply noticed the pervasive presence of gambling stats and odds in the world of sports, coupled with invitations to download gambling apps, prompting me to wonder how many more Americans will becomes slaves to this highly addictive habit. Or, if they don’t become slaves to gambling, how many will simply lose lots of money indulging this habit?

The Tinley Park Village Board will hold a public hearing on Tuesday, July 17 at 6:30 p.m. at the Village Hall, 16250 S.Oak Park Ave.  to consider annexing of land for a gas station to become a truck stop.  If approved, the truck stop, near a residential area, could have video gambling 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Local residents could gamble all night on the video gambling machines.

Due to a U.S. Supreme Court decision, the odds have improved for legal sports betting to come to Illinois. Proponents are promising lots of tax revenue from bets on baseball, basketball, football, and other sports.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are bowing to gambling interests and victimizing people as a result, says an expert on the industry.