The Internet is the new frontier of gambling, with the power of the World Wide Web being harnessed to allow people unprecedented access to everything from lotteries to Casino-style gaming, says Jonathan Gallagher, spokesperson on gambling for the Seventh-day Adventist Church worldwide.

“There has been an explosion in recent years in the number of Web sites offering on-line games of chance,” says Gallagher, who points out that unsupervised children and others, such as compulsive gamblers, are especially vulnerable due to the sheer accessibility of the Internet. “This is a destructive activity-the gambling business is predicated on the idea that a small number of people are massively profiting from the loss of many others.”

Gallagher’s comments come in the wake of recently failed efforts by United States lawmakers to tighten regulation of the burgeoning Internet gambling industry. The proposed law, which was narrowly rejected in the House of Representatives on July 17, would have outlawed most forms of on-line gambling, including more than 700 unregulated casino-style Web sites that together handled an estimated $1.2 billion in wagers last year. Under the bill, courts would have been empowered to grant state law enforcement agencies the ability to require Web service providers to block illegal gambling sites, many of which are run from locations outside the United States.

Calling gambling “incompatible with Christian principles” and a social danger that “erodes the quality of life,” the Adventist Church issued an official statement regarding “games of chance” on July 6 during the church’s World Session in Toronto, Canada. The statement identifies the massive financial and social impact of gambling and also cites its addictive quality, which often contributes to individual ruin and family breakdowns.

The Adventist Church has been a longtime opponent of gambling, either as a form of entertainment or a means of raising revenue, says Gallagher.  With its July statement, the Church reaffirmed its commitment to neither “solicit nor accept funding that is clearly derived from gambling” and called on “all authorities to prevent the ever-increasing availability of gambling with its damaging effects on individuals and society.”