It's Thursday, December 12, 2024. I'm Albert Moller, and this is the briefing, a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview.

The Economist of London thinks it's pointing to something very significant when it runs a series with the headline,

gambling is growing

like gangbusters in America. There's a certain irony in that headline, but let's just face

the fact that the big story here is a vast increase in the number of Americans gambling and how

much money they are gambling, the array of different activities that are now included in legalized, and for that matter, still illegal gambling.

And the fact that this has now become a major part of American culture and, as the economist notes, a major part of the American economy as well.

Our concern here is more with what this reveals about morality, worldview, human nature. They're all very much a part of this particular picture. Let's start with the economist. The economist is one of the most important media entities in Great Britain. It is primarily associated with the economy. You can tell that from the title, but it is also interested in the economic

dimensions of the larger culture. It is authoritative in the British context, and it is widely

read on both sides of the Atlantic. It is something like a British version of the Wall Street

Journal. Very similar kind of approach. But when you look at the moral judgment

being made by the economist, it's here, and it is very much a moral judgment. Another headline

in their series is this. America's gambling boom should be celebrated, not feared. And so we're

talking here about two different possible responses to this radical increase in gambling.

One is to think it's a bad thing. One is to think it's a good thing. The economist declares itself,

saying that it is a good thing. It should be celebrated, not feared. Now, the very fact that you

publish a series like this, and you run a headline like that indicates that the economist knows

this is a moral issue. It doesn't want to face the moral issue squarely, but it does at least

acknowledge them. Let's look first of all at the major news analysis offered by the economist on

just the facts of how much gambling is growing in the United States. Well, here's one

interesting thing. Back in 2018, that's not exactly ancient history, less than 10 years ago,

Americans bet $7 billion on sports. It's now $150 billion a year. So from $7 billion a year to

...