Annual gambling losses pass $2.6 billion

The Department of Internal Affairs latest gambling statistics show a 9% increase in gambling expenditure between 2019 and 2021. Gambling expenditure was nearly $2.7 billion in the year ended June 2021 (gambling expenditure is the amount lost by gamblers – the difference between the amount gambled and the amount returned as prizes). Total gambling turnover (excluding casinos) was estimated to be $15.1 billion. The growth in gambling expenditure was limited by the COVID-19 border restrictions, which significantly reduced international tourist numbers.

The strongest growth in total turnover and expenditure was on New Zealand Lotteries Commission products. Expenditure on these increased by 31% in the two years to June 2021

To put the gambling expenditure of $2,625 million into context, Statistics New Zealand latest household expenditure survey for the year to June 2019 shows that New Zealand households were estimated to have spent:

• $3,362 million on apparel and footwear,
• $4,092 million on domestic fuel and power, and
• $3.836 million on health services.

Why do people gamble?

Many people gamble because they feel that they have needs that cannot be met through earned income. Gambling to them is their “opportunity” to acquire material wealth and comforts. Another group gambles just for the fun of it; they call themselves social gamblers. The last group is compulsive gamblers. To them gambling is a disease that wrecks their finances, families, and careers.

Why is gambling a problem?

Gambling surveys that people on low incomes spend a higher proportion of their income on gambling. That’s often motivated by a desire to experience a level of wealth that’s not possible through work. For every person who gains money from gambling there is a far greater number who have lost. All of the expenditure numbers quoted in this article are based on the average amount of money that is lost by people in gambling, not the amount they have invested in the hope of winning.

Expenditure of this size is having an impact on families, with the biggest impact on those that can least afford the loss of income. Problem gambling is a concern, but even low scale gamblers are a concern. That’s because money is being diverted away from current family needs for a distant hope of future wealth.

Gambling is in direct opposition to the scriptural principles of diligent work and faithful stewardship. No productive work is required in gambling; thus, a person’s character is not properly developed. The odds of winning are absurdly low, and gamblers waste the possessions that the Lord has entrusted to them.

Conclusion

The Bible does not specifically prohibit gambling. However, for many the motivation for gambling is an attempt to get rich quick. This is a violation of Scripture. In our opinion, a godly person should never participate in gambling or lotteries — even for entertainment. We should not expose ourselves or others around us to the risk of becoming compulsive gamblers; nor should we support an industry that enslaves so many.

There is more information of the DIA website

Peter Crawford          crown@crown.smm.acme.org.nz

The good and bad of oil price rises

Oil prices have significantly increased recently, impacting household budgets and pushing the rate of inflation higher.  However, is an increase in the price of oil always a bad thing?

Prices rises are “good” when they accurately reflect need and scarcity. Prices rises are “bad” when they do not represent realities of the world in which we live. 

That occurs when artificial constraints are put on supply or competition among suppliers is limited.  That might occur if oil suppliers agree on a minimum price or to limit production.

However, if there are genuine limits to oil production, along with increases in global consumption, then it is good for prices to rise.

Short-term increases in oil prices can create economic instability.  That’s occurred recently, with central banks having to rapidly increase interest rates to try to slow the rate of inflation.  Less than two years ago interest rates were being reduced to record low levels.

Short-term price increases are useful for helping us think about our current use of oil on a daily basis.  New Zealand has a very high rate of car ownership and a high share of journeys to work and education are made by car.  Census 2018 data shows 73% of people drove to work or were passengers in a car, truck or van.  There were 12% who worked at home and just 7% walking or cycling and 6% using public transport.  There were 50% of children and adults who drove or were driven to education.  The share who walked or cycled was higher at 24% and the public transport share was 19%.

But there are alternatives for travel that are good for our wallet and often for our health.  Estimates for owning a car show the fixed costs are usually higher than the variable costs.

Fixed costs are those expenses that do not change or change little regardless of how many kilometres you drive in a year.

Fixed costs include vehicle insurance, Warrant of Fitness, vehicle licensing, vehicle depreciation and interest.

Vehicle depreciation is an estimate for how much the value of your car declines each year.  The average car in New Zealand lives 21 years and is then scrapped.  The annual loss in value is very high for new cars, but low for old cars.

There is an interest cost regardless of whether you borrow to buy a car or you can pay with cash.  The cost is much higher if you borrow to buy a car.  If you have to take money out of a saving account to buy a car, the cost is the interest you might have earnt on those savings.

Variable costs include fuel, tyres and vehicle maintenance and servicing

It’s difficult to produce a simple estimate for the annual cost of car ownership.  It is influenced by how new the car is, how large it is, how far you drive it in one year and how you paid for it.

Broad estimates I have done suggest an annual cost of $6,700 for ownership of a 10-year old petrol car.  The cost will be smaller if it’s a small car or older than 10 years.

The estimates suggested a fixed cost of $3,400 a year and a variable cost of $3,300.  The variable cost estimate was prepared before the recent rise in petrol prices, so the current cost will be higher.

Options for reducing the number of cars you own include:

• greater use of walking, cycling or public transport,
• using a taxi, Uber or hiring a car on the few occasions that an additional car would be useful, or
• borrowing a car from a friend or family.

Peter Crawford

Help me get our spending under control

If your spouse is spending too much money, there are some key steps you can take.

Some of the obvious ways to reduce spending include eliminating the big expenses.  This might be a car payment or rental/living costs in excess of 40% of your net spendable income. Look at both of those expenses closely, and determine if you need to make any changes. If not, there are some not-so-obvious ways you can save money each month that really add up over time. Cutting what seems like a necessity may seem impossible, but over time, the sacrifice will prove rewarding. Here are a few examples for you to consider.

1. Do you really need that streaming service?
2. Do you really need Audible or Spotify? Or can you survive with ads during the free version of Spotify?
3. How much do you send on eating out?
4. Can you make your lunch at home and stop buying it each day?
5. Can you survive with just one car?

Free audiobooks are available via your local library.  They have various ways to download eBooks and eAudiobooks onto your computer or device with a library card. Spotify and other small monthly fees that seem insignificant can really add up.

There’s More

Look at your spending with a critical eye. What could you realistically eliminate? What are your real needs? What do you need to reprioritize? Small daily purchases can add up quickly.

Analyse what is spent on subscription services, fast food, coffee, bottled water, shoes, clothes, gym membership and gear, house plants, manicures, pedicures, tattoos, haircuts and colour, lottery tickets, toys for children, etc.

Spending Challenge

Ask your spouse to join you in tracking all of your spending for the next 30 days. When Ann and I did this years ago, we found that recording each dollar spent made us more aware of our actions. We realized that we had some costly habits. Write down your expenses. Don’t leave anything off your list so that you know where your money is really going.

After 30 days, come together and share what you learn. It may only take a few days before a heightened awareness sets in. Prayerfully discuss what you could sacrifice for six months or a year. I suggest you gently educate your spouse on the long-term benefits. Can you agree to get the help of a mentor or come under the accountability of trusted friends? How about planning a reward when reaching your goal? You can likely cut back on your spending 25% by just changing some of your habits.

Reducing spending builds the habit of saving.  With the help of automatic payments or direct debits, people learn to live without. The possibilities once you reduce your spending can include:

• Building an emergency fund
• Paying off debt
• Saving for retirement
• Giving more generously
• Having funds for a move, a business, education, holidays, births, deaths, etc.

We enter marriage with a philosophy of money. Most often, we marry an opposite. The goal is uniting around God’s principles regarding our finances. Pray about how to lovingly communicate with your spouse. Treat him/her with respect and love so you can make progress. My desire is to see God’s people free and marriages united, strong, and thriving. We must recognize the errors in what the world has taught us about finances and have our minds renewed by God’s truth.

Chuck Bentley

Why understanding your money philosophy could save your marriage

Ask married people about their financial problems, and you’ll likely hear a list of issues:

“I’m not sure I’ll ever be debt-free”

“I’m sick of living from one week to the next”

“I will never have enough savings to buy a house”

“If my husband (or wife) would stop spending money, we wouldn’t be so stressed all the time”

Common financial issues are;

• struggling to get out of overdraft or pay off credit card debt,
• making it to the end of the month, or
• unable to retire due to a mortgage that has not been paid off.

These concerns stretch across religious, ethnic, and gender differences.

For many, mixing money and marriage is like oil and water…they just don’t go together. Finances are a leading cause for divorce, the delay of marriage, and not getting married at all. Try to find a couple that hasn’t ever disagreed about money.

My marriage was no different. My wife and I spent 21 years of our marriage in disagreement about money. We had arguments, ongoing stress, and made mistakes because I didn’t agree with her and she didn’t agree with me. I was the spender, she was the saver. We loved each other, but were far from being unified when it came to our finances.

So why is it that when it comes to money in marriage, we have such a hard time getting on the same page?

Well, in a word: Philosophy.

If you had told me during those first 21 years of my marriage that my wife and I need to talk about “philosophy” to get on the same page about our money, I would have rolled my eyes and shrugged it off. “Philosophy” was just something stuffy old professors cared about and it didn’t apply to me, my marriage, or my money.

The turning point in our marriage came when my wife lovingly convinced me to join a Crown Financial Ministries Bible study. Talking about my marriage and finances in a group of other people sounded like just about the worst thing I could think of, but I went. And things started to change. One day, my wife gently asked me, “Do you agree with God’s teaching on money?” I said, “Yes. I agree with God.” She then said, “Good! If you agree with God, then I can agree with you!”

We quit competing about our preferences, and started unifying under God’s plan.

See, whether or not we know it, each of us have a philosophy about money. It’s not necessarily some lofty, theological mind-set that sounds like it came out of a university. It’s a compilation of our thoughts, ideas, plans, dreams, concepts, beliefs, and principles that together dictate our actions.

God designed us to act upon what we believe. So if we believe the wrong things about money, we are bound to behave wrongly as well. But, if we believe the right things about God, His plan, and His purpose for our marriage and finances, it will change everything.

Stated another way, the problem is not how much money you make, what’s in your savings account, or the amount of debt you have. Those are your behaviours, which are a result of your beliefs. The problem is the financial lies you believe. Disunity with your spouse occurs because you’re treating the wrong thing. You’re trying to put a band aid on a broken leg, and it’s never going to fix the real problem.

Healing happens when you align your philosophy with one another and Scripture. You and your spouse start speaking the same language. You start prioritising the same things. It’s no longer an attitude of “I’m right, and she’s wrong”. It’s “This is what the Bible says, and we are going to agree to live our lives according to this truth.”

To experience lasting change, we must embrace the truth of a new belief, then to act upon it to change our behaviours.

As it says in Proverbs, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it”.

Chuck Bentley