Betting on God: Baptist minister serves Las Vegas casino workers

Stacy J. Willis

Thursday, April 26, 2001 | 10:57 a.m.

Don't stand on the slot machines and scream about Jesus.

Don't thrust your Bible at tourists, nor trouble the dealers and waitresses with tales of gambling's evils, nor try to persuade the valet to forgo his late-night poker game for an evening of quiet prayer.

These are the rules, the Rev. Tommy Starkes says. He's standing in a back room at the Nevada Baptist Association building on a Tuesday night telling six people how to be casino ministers.

They are taking notes. The affair is sponsored by the Atlanta-based Southern Baptist Convention -- which sank $2 million into a yearlong campaign, "Loving Las Vegas," meant to ratchet up Sin City's interest in church attendance.

About two dozen people have attended Starkes' Strip ministry training session so far.

But the Southern Baptists -- renowned for vocally condemning and lobbying against gambling in Southern states -- aren't speaking out against it in Las Vegas.

"The fact is that many, many Christians in Las Vegas work in the gaming industry," Harry Watson, association president, said. "They believe God has placed them there to be a witness. So we just try to minister to the individual person. "There is no reason for us to have a particular platform against gaming."

So this training session -- led by Starkes, pastor of Tropicana Christian Fellowship -- encourages would-be Strip ministers to run subtle, behind-the-scenes fellowships with employees.

"It is definitely a ministry that is peculiar to Las Vegas," Watson said.

"It may not be what some people think of when they think of Southern Baptists. But gaining the trust of the casinos, the ability to be welcome in their casinos, is a slow process."

After seven years of relationship-building, Starkes walks past the 'No Solicitation' signs on casino front doors with the blessing of many a hotel executive.

"At first I thought, 'I don't need some guy coming to my staff and preaching,' " Mike Rose, general manager of the Key Largo hotel-casino, and a Catholic, said. "But now I think his work is invaluable here." Starkes' access was made easier by the work of his predecessor, the Rev. Jim Reid, who pioneered behind-the-scenes casino ministering in the 1970s.

Reid, a missionary from Arizona, convinced the Southern Baptist Convention to take this quiet approach to casino ministering, and later trained Starkes and the Rev. Charles Bowlin, who now works on staff at the Riviera hotel-casino.

Starkes holds prayer sessions in showgirls' dressing rooms, meets poker dealers and cocktail waitresses one-on-one in employees-only hallways for quick counsel, and gives "uplifting talks" in employee cafeterias.

"There are three main problems these people have," Starkes says of the 210,000 casino employees in Las Vegas.

"The first is drugs. Speed. So many people have to work two jobs. The second is broken marriages. They work different shifts than their spouses -- if they get an hour a week together, they're lucky. And the third is that their kids are on the street. Their kids are getting into trouble, because they're working around the clock."

Although well funded, Southern Baptists in charge of the yearlong "Loving Las Vegas" evangelistic campaign opted not to criticize the behemoth casino industry for the toll it takes on some employees.

In fact, Starkes' ministry training session includes no mention of opposing gambling.

"There is no theological reason that gambling is considered bad," Starkes says. "For Southern Baptists, the idea that it is bad is historical ... there is the idea that if you're a nice person you just don't drink and gamble.

"And you can argue against gambling by saying that greed and coveting are two major sins in the Bible. But every mention of gambling in the Bible is either neutral or positive."

Not all Baptists agree with Starkes. While the Bible does not say, "Thou shalt not gamble," many believe that gambling is deceptive and constitutes lying, in addition to encouraging greed. And, they say, the true mission of the church is to speak boldly against such vices -- not to ignore them.

In South Carolina, Southern Baptists refused to support the governor because he encouraged the growth of organized gambling. Similar positions have been taken by Baptists in Alabama and Georgia.

But Joyce Eatman, a dealer at Caesars Palace, said many of her co-workers need more immediate spiritual guidance -- and cannot afford to leave their jobs to get it. And, she said, just having a pronounced religious presence in casinos is effective evangelism.

"Other employees know you're a Christian and they watch you," Eatman said. "They know to come to you and ask for prayer. That's how our fellowship builds.

"After a while, I invite them to my church."