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By Bobby Ross Jr. | Religion Unplugged
If a modern-day Rip Van Winkle woke up this weekend, imagine his shock at the ease and prevalence of online sports gambling.
Keith Stanglin, a Christian preacher and theologian in Austin, Texas, experienced a jolt himself when he discovered it.
“In the last year or two,” Stanglin told me in an email, “I’ve started watching a little more football [NFL and NCAA] again, after taking a nearly total hiatus for many years. So I easily notice how things have changed (in and around the game). One of the most obvious new changes is the ubiquitous advertising and promoting of online sports betting. I find it shocking and horrible; it angers me.”
Americans are expected to wager a record $1.76 billion legally on Sunday’s Super Bowl LX game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks, according to USA Today.
For decades, religious opponents waged battles — albeit often unsuccessfully — to prevent legalized gambling. Nearly a quarter-century ago, I covered the fight over a proposed Tennessee state lottery for The Associated Press.
“Since 47 states have gambling, I would have to think God’s not really against it,” Democratic state Sen. Steve Cohen — Tennessee’s chief lottery proponent, who is now a U.S. congressman — told me in 2002.
Based on that logic, God must really love Americans’ ability to click on a smartphone and wager on a live NBA, MLB or NFL game.
This column appears in the online magazine Religion Unplugged.
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