I have a confession to make. Better call it an “admission.” Confession sounds like sin. And this isn’t.

A few years ago I won a couple of hundred bucks playing blackjack in a Native American-run casino outside Santa Fe, N.M. Of course, I’ve lost a few bucks here and there as well. That’s the admission: Very occasionally, and only when on vacation, I’ve dropped a few bucks and wasted a few hours gambling. (I prefer to call it “entertainment”; it’s cheaper than dinner and a movie.) Most often, the casinos are on cruise ships or run by Native American tribes. (And it’s about time they beat the whites at something.)

What’s the big deal? Gambling is one of those issues that causes lots of people consternation. Sure it’s legal, ever since the state lottery replaced the illegal numbers game a generation ago. There’s horse-racing, riverboats ring Chicago, and, if Mayor Daley has his way (and likely will), there’ll be a glittering palace of chance downtown in the not-too-distant future.

And that has a lot of people worried.

Not about the legality—that’s already been decided. But about the morality. And the potential for sin.

On a recent Monday, the archdiocesan radio show I host with Father Greg Sakowitz, (Mondays and Fridays, 9-10 a.m. on 820AM) explored the question, especially because a lot of the “new revenue” of the just-passed Illinois budget is built on gambling.

(Some of the governor’s opponents claimed the budget is built on a “house of cards,” though I’m uncertain they recognize the irony.)

The possibility of a casino in downtown Chicago has religious groups upset. Recently a group of African-American ministers warned that easy access to a new casino downtown would be an attractive occasion for sin.

On the radio show, the Rev. Tom Grey, a Methodist minister and anti-gambling activist, explained how wagering can be risky behavior for society. Also on the show was Father Gregory Rom, pastor of St. Isadore the Farmer, Blue Island, who recently reprinted our article, “God and Gambling” in his bulletin because of talk of a casino in that area. And the Rev. Paul Rutgers, a Presbyterian minister and executive director of the Council of Religious Leaders of Metropolitan Chicago, dusted off the group’s 1993 opposition to expanded gambling.

The Archdiocese of Chicago is part of that group and agrees that there’s reason to be concerned when revenue is built upon games of chance and raises serious questions about the moral and ethical effects of gambling on society.

Just over two years ago, the Catholic Conference of Illinois issued a statement called “A Catholic Perspective on Gambling in Illinois.” It’s a very good document recognizing that gambling (like the stuff I indulge in on vacation) isn’t a sin or even contrary to justice.

Surely there’s the cynic who’s reading this and saying, “Sure the church won’t oppose gambling outright. What about bingo?” It’s worth saying that bingo is slowly going away in most areas—less than 1 percent of parish revenue across the archdiocese is rooted in that form of “entertainment.” It’s going away, perhaps, because it, too, has a potential for “enslavement.”

Reaching into the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” for enlightenment, the statement reminds us that gambling becomes morally unacceptable—yes, a sin—when our passion for it enslaves us; when the grocery money, or the cash for the kids’ braces or the rent, plunks down into the gaping maw of a slot machine, or even a bulging roll of Lotto tickets. That’s not quite so likely to happen with church raffles and the like.

The concern—and it’s a valid one—is that the state’s passion for revenue can be just as enslaving, and just as sinful as well as creating a situation where those who can least afford it are those who feed the kitty.

Perhaps that’s why I won’t visit the local boats; it’s too easy.

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