Gambling, including sports betting, has become a huge legal business. Does the fact it is legal make it moral? Should Christians participate? What does the Bible say?
Click here to read a more detailed study of gambling.
Fox Business was quoted as predicting that legal betting for the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament would reach more than $3 billion.* Years ago I worked in an office where office pools were regular events. Now sports gambling is legal and widely promoted.
Legal or not, why should God-fearing people avoid gambling?
Three Morally Legitimate Ways to Transfer Money or Possessions
1. The law of exchange – Two people agree to exchange goods or money.
Genesis 23:1-18 – Abraham bought a field for money.
2. The law of labor or service – A person pays money or property to compensate another person for providing work or service.
1 Timothy 5:18 – The laborer is worthy of his wages.
(Ephesians 4:28; 1 Thessalonians 4:11,12; 2 Thessalonians 3:10-12)
3. The law of giving – A person chooses, of his own free will, to give something away.
Acts 20:35 – It is more blessed to give than to receive.
God authorizes only these three ways to legitimately transfer property. In each case a person gives something to someone else as compensation for goods or services or as an act of good will freely chosen. Gambling fits none of these. It is an immoral way of obtaining others’ possessions.
(2 Corinthians 9:6,7; Ephesians 4:28; 1 John 3:17,18; 1 Corinthians 13:3)
Covetousness and Greed
Covetousness is the desire to take someone else’s property in some way other than the three ways authorized by God: without giving fair value in exchange or not as an act of good will.
Acts 20:33-35 – Paul did not covet other people’s property but worked to meet his needs.
2 Corinthians 9:5-7 – Giving grudgingly of compulsion, instead of cheerfully out of generosity, is called “covetousness” (KJV). If we seek to take someone else’s property against his will and without giving fair compensation, that is covetousness. Yet this is exactly what gambling involves.
1 Corinthians 6:9-11 – Those who covet will not receive God’s kingdom. (5:11; Ephesians 5:5-7)
The Principle of Stewardship
A steward has been entrusted to use someone else’s property according to the owner’s will.
Psalm 24:1,2; 50:10-12 – All our material possessions belong to God to use to please Him.
We may use our possessions to provide for our needs and our families, give to the church, preach the gospel, and help the needy. We must not use possessions just to please ourselves without God's approval. We must use them to do God’s will and will give account to Him for how we use them.
Luke 16:1,2 – If a servant wastes his master’s goods, he is an unfaithful steward.
Every gambler, for the sake of his own self-indulgence, gambles with money that belongs to God without God’s permission. God will hold him accountable.
(1 Timothy 6:9,10,17-19; Matthew 25:14-30)
The Law of Love
Matthew 22:39 – The second greatest command is “love your neighbor as yourself.” Does the gambler love his neighbor as he loves himself?
Matthew 7:12 – Do to others as you want them to do to you. But the gambler deliberately seeks to do to others the very thing he does not want done to him!
Romans 13:8-10 – Specifically lists coveting as a violation of the law of love. The very essence of gambling is hoping other people will lose so you can profit at their loss.
1 Corinthians 13:5 – Love does not seek its own. Gambling, by its nature, is self-seeking.
(Philippians 2:4; 1 John 3:16-18)
God’s servants must remember these principles when tempted to gamble.
(c) Copyright David E. Pratte, 2025; gospelway.com
