Should your focus be on money? Will winning a massive amount of money in a lottery make you happy? What happens to people who actually win the lottery? Can it be more of a curse to win the lottery than to lose playing it? Can lotteries demotivate people to improve their financial conditions? Does the lottery have among the worst odds of winning compared to other forms of gambling? Which nations lose the most money on lotteries? What happens when friends and relatives learn someone wins the lottery? Are lottery winners more likely to file for bankruptcy in certain time periods than those who did not win the lottery? Does God know that you need to eat? What did Jesus say His followers should do? Steve Dupuie and Dr. Thiel address these matters.

The ‘curse’ of winning the lottery

Author: Dr. Bob Thiel

Many people want to win the lottery. Even those who rarely get involved tend to get lottery fever when the jackpot gets high enough.

With prizes sometimes over a billion US dollars (see https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/23/us/mega-millions-jackpot-friday/index.html), the appeal to try to win and become incredibly rich draws many.

Some feel that getting a lot of money will solve all their problems and make them happy.

Though money is helpful for many things (cf. Ecclesiastes 10:19), no, winning the lottery does not solve all problems, nor of itself, bring happiness.

The Bible warns:

9 those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. (1 Timothy 6:9-10)

The desire to hope on the lottery can lead to many foolish and harmful lusts.

But is it always a good thing to actually win the lottery?

Notice something from the past about the ‘success’ of the ‘winners’:

The ‘curse’ of winning the lottery?
February 6, 2018
Be careful what you wish for.
The New Hampshire woman who won the $559.7 million Powerball jackpot last month is refusing to claim her prize until she’s assured anonymity. And she may have a compelling reason to seek the guarantee.
It turns out winning a jackpot of millions or even thousands of dollars can lead to financial ruin — or even death. Several recent lottery winners have turned up dead in communities across the country. …
Sometimes hitting the jackpot simply brings “more problems,” as rapper Notorious B.I.G. put it. …

“Of the thousands of lottery winners I knew, a few were happy and a few lived happily ever after,” Edward Ugel, author of Money for Nothing: One Man’s Journey Through the Dark Side of Lottery Millions, told the Daily Beast. “But you would be blown away to see how many winners wish they’d never won.” http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/06/curse-winning-lottery.html

January 12, 2016
If you win the $1.5 billion Powerball jackpot, you may not be as lucky as you may think. Many winners befall the so-called curse of the lottery, with some squandering their fortunes and others meeting tragic ends.
“So many of them wind up unhappy or wind up broke. People have had terrible things happen,” said Don McNay, 56, a financial consultant to lottery winners and the author of Life Lessons from the Lottery. “People commit suicide. People run though their money. Easy comes, easy goes. They go through divorce or people die.”
“It’s just upheaval that they’re not ready for,” McNay told TIME on Tuesday. “It’s the curse of the lottery because it made their lives worse instead of improving them.”
About 70 percent of people who suddenly receive a windfall of cash will lose it within a few years, according to the National Endowment for Financial Education. http://time.com/4176128/powerball-jackpot-lottery-winners/.

So, even those who ‘win’ still lose.

Notice also:

5 reasons you don’t really want to win the lottery
December 29, 2017
No one wants to discourage you from winning, but here’s a reality check: Loot can bring some ugly into your life, so you had better be ready for it. These are the ways megabucks can megabackfire.
1. YOUR FRIENDS WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE.
Once word gets out that you have the winning ticket, you can expect everyone to try to cozy up to you, …
2. YOUR RELATIONSHIP COULD FAIL.
Money woes can strain a relationship. But those who come into big windfalls find coming into a lot of money can also overtax a relationship. …
3. YOU’LL HAVE AN INCREASED RISK OF BANKRUPTCY.
Given the fact that you’d have enough dough to clear up your debt, bankruptcy seems a long shot after winning the lottery. But experts say lottery winners actually are at greater risk of bankruptcy. …
4. YOU’LL HAVE TO FIGHT OFF A HOST OF LONG-LOST FAMILY MEMBERS.
Jeff Motske, a financial planner and president of Trilogy Financial Services, headquartered in Huntington Beach, California, says lottery winners often become targets for long-lost relatives who knock on the door with one hand and hold the other palm up. Somehow they think when one family member wins the lotto, the whole family wins the lotto. …
5. YOU’LL BE A TARGET FOR A LITANY OF LAWSUITS AND SCAMS.
Hoping to carve out a chunk of your fortune, Motske says lottery winners are often targets for bogus lawsuits because everyone starts to come after them. https://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/5-reasons-you-dont-want-win-lottery-money-1264.php

You also seem to have an increased risk of being killed (see http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/06/curse-winning-lottery.html).

In 2020, it was reported that someone in North Carolina won the lottery again:

January 25, 2020
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — A North Carolina woman seems to have a knack for winning lottery scratch-off games.
The N.C. Education Lottery says in a news release that Linda Tate of Durham won a $1 million prize this week after playing the $10,000,000 Colossal Cash scratch-off game.
In August 2018, Tate won $4 million after playing Millionaire Bucks.
After required state and federal taxes were withheld, Tate took home $424,509 for her latest triumph. https://apnews.com/6fc570bbbcf461758a3f60488c1ca421

In the above report, we see that Linda Tate was not satisfied after winning USD$4,000,000, since she kept gambling. We also see that she ended up with less than 1/2 the USD$1,000,000 she was declared to have won.

The fact that Linda Tate’s name is in the news for winning, helps insure that any who know her, as well as many con artists, will be able to locate her.

Lotteries, sadly, are promoted by many governments around the world. Government taxes are the real winners.

Yet, many people fantasize about winning the lottery.

Many are convinced winning a large amount of money will improve their lives.

Yet, that is most often not the case.

Furthermore, most lose, of course, when they buy lottery tickets.

And, as I have written for years, the lottery is a tax on the poor. It is the poor and lower middle class who tend to spend the most money on lottery tickets.

The odds of winning the lottery are worse than most other forms of gambling.

And, reports by lottery winners show that they are often less happy after they win.

Gamblers, of course, typically lose.

Many deceive themselves about what they would do with large gambling winnings. Some gamblers seem to try to make some type of deal in their heads with God, hoping that He will decide that they should win.

A decade or so ago, I recall a scene from a movie called Bruce Almighty and the lottery. The premise of the movie was someone named Bruce (played by Jim Carry) complained about God and how he did not feel that God was doing His job right. So, in the movie, God allowed Bruce to be able to hear and answer prayers for a region.

It does not take long for Bruce to get overwhelmed by the process. So, for a time he decides to give everyone whatever they asked for. So, with the next lottery ticket drawing, all those in the area Bruce was responsible for, were allowed to win. The winners all acted very pleased when they won, until they realized that each would only get a few dollars as the prize was split among all who asked ‘God’ to win in that area. They were not pleased that they had to share the winnings with so many others.

The Apostle Paul wrote:

4 Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. (Philippians 2:4)

I suspect that many have prayed that God would allow them to win the lottery or other forms of gambling. Few, if any, have prayed that someone they are not close to, will win.

Years ago, I reported about gambling losses per adult, by nation. Here is a listing, from that post, of the nations whose people lost the most money per adult:

Australia
Singapore
Finland
New Zealand
United States
Italy
Ireland
Norway
Canada
Sweden
Britain

It was interesting to note that the American and Anglo-Saxon nations had six of the eleven top biggest gambling losing nations in the world.

Gambling often gets people to focus on getting something for nothing.

I believe that public lotteries often demotivate people to improve themselves financially. Many seem to give up on improving themselves and rely on buying lottery tickets as a means to tell themselves that they are trying to get out of poverty and other financial worries.

Instead of working harder, getting better job training, and/or improving education, many poor resign themselves that the lottery is their answer. They do not understand, What is the Meaning of Life?

Many purchasers of lottery tickets also do not heed the following:

31 Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Instead of seeking first the Kingdom of God, they seek to get what they can from others.

Of course, that is not limited to lottery ticket purchasers, but their focus suggests the way of get and not the loving way of give (though there can be exceptions).

Lotteries are not good for humanity. Governments should not promote them.

The Continuing Church of God put together the following on our Bible New Prophecy YouTube channel:

GAMBLING: A COVETOUS SIN?

Is gambling a sin? What is sin? The gambling industry calls itself the gaming industry. Basically, they like to indicate that they are in the entertainment industry. And while that is slightly true, many people who gamble are not just playing games, but focused on winning money and hoping not to lose it. Is it ever appropriate for Christians to gamble? Who wins in gambling? Who loses in gambling? Which nations lose the most? What about government lotteries? Are lotteries good for society or a tax on the poor?

Here is a link to our video: Gambling: A Covetous Sin?

Since some have wondered why all Christians are not wealthy, and the Continuing Church of God put out the following sermonette on its ContinuingCOG channel:

WHY AREN’T ALL CHRISTIANS MULTI-MILLIONAIRES?
In Malachi 3, God promises great blessings for those who pay their tithes and give offerings. So, why aren’t all real Christians who do so not multi-millionaires? Did Job and Jeremiah wonder why some of wicked were prosperous? Did the Apostle Peter have much silver or gold? Are winners of massive lottery prizes happier than before they won? What would happen if God provided massive financial prosperity to those who tithed? Does faith have anything to do with this? Would all real Christians benefit from vast amounts of monetary wealth? Does God want Christians to prosper and be in health? If so, why are there financial and health problems? Is the love of money a root of any kind of evil? What does God want from you? Are some blessings spiritual? Dr. Thiel answers these questions.

Here is a link to the related sermonette: Why Aren’t All Christians Multi-Millionaires?

Lotteries are not the answer. Seeking first the Kingdom of God is.

Full article with related written items/videos: "The ‘curse’ of winning the lottery"

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