Why You Shouldn’t Gamble
It’s that time of year. We just came through the Super Bowl and are coming up on March Madness. But that also means gambling. Lots of gambling. According to the AP, March Madness “generates more wagering than any other event in the United States. The American Gaming Association estimated a record $3.3 billion would be legally bet on the games this year.” All of this brings the question of gambling, and in particular sports gambling, back to our attention.
A few months back I wrote an article arguing that Christians shouldn’t participate in vice. There I dealt with a broader range of issues like gambling, alcohol, and marijuana. What I say here won’t be tremendously different, but it will be more focused on gambling in particular since that has been making headlines these last two months. As you can tell from the title, I’m not hiding my opinion. I don’t think you should gamble. And I have three reasons why I don’t think anyone, Christian or not, should gamble.
1. You may not be able to control it.
I was recently in Boston for a conference, and while we were driving around I saw an ad on the bus in front of me that said something like, “Can’t stop thinking about your next bet?” Underneath the sign was contact information for a gambling help hotline. It reminds me of the story I heard someone share about a family member who had become an alcoholic. “All my friends drink and then go on with their lives. I can’t stop thinking about the next drink.” This is addiction. Addiction is when something consumes your heart and mind, pulling you in again and again. That can happen with alcohol, and it can happen with gambling.
“That won’t be me” you might think, and you might be right. But you might also be wrong. No one sets out thinking to themselves, “I’ll probably become an addict, but it looks really fun so I think I’ll give it a go.” Everyone wants to think that if they start they could stop. But you really have no way of knowing. Scripture warns us that we should not be brought under the power of anything (1 Corinthians 6:12; 10:23).
Obviously, not everyone who starts gambling will become addicted. Many people, perhaps even most people, will not. But you don’t know if that will be you. In fact, the only way to really know is to start gambling. And if you fail the test, it might be too late.
2. Gambling is wasteful.
Christians have been warning about gambling for years, back when the biggest concern was the lottery and the casino. One of the classic arguments that often gets trotted out is the warning that money is being wasted. You are putting money into something that you can know almost for certain you will not get back. “The house always wins” we are reminded. Often this argument falls on deaf ears. After all, one $5 lottery ticket a week is not going to make you destitute. “How about I get one less Starbucks a week so that I can buy my lottery ticket? Does that work?” “Can I take a few hundred dollars and go to a casino and have fun, if I know that I’m going to lose it by the end anyway?” The same logic gets used today. “It’s just recreation. As long as it’s measured and doesn’t get out of control, what’s wrong with it?”
While this argument is often quickly dismissed, I think it’s stronger than most people give it credit for. First, little purchases can add up. Many Christians have realized that they are making wasteful purchases—too much fast food, too many unused subscriptions, too many new shoes or clothes—and have cut back spending because they realize they are being wasteful with the resources God has given them. The Bible sees us as stewards of all that God gives us, and we want to take good care of His resources. A $5 a week parlay adds up to $260 a year. That’s not nothing.
The other question I would have is how much are you really spending? This is kind of an invasive question, and so I probably wouldn’t ask it to someone directly. But if someone is arguing that gambling isn’t that bad, I do honestly wonder how much they are gambling. I have a hard time seeing someone who is into gambling limit themselves to $15 over the three weeks of March Madness. So I do think it’s relevant to ask (hypothetically of course), if you are going to gamble, how much is too much? $500 a year? $1,000 a year? $10,000 a year?
3. Even if you can control it and aren’t spending too much, you are feeding the beast.
Let’s say you roll the dice (pun intended) and start gambling, and you aren’t addicted. You can budget out $5 a week for a parlay and $200 a year for bigger events like the Super Bowl or March Madness. Others might think that’s a lot, but you enjoy the extra fun it brings to watch the games, it’s your money, and things aren’t spiraling out of control. Maybe you’ll even admit that getting into betting in the first place wasn’t the best idea, but you’re gambling now and you’re not addicted and not being wasteful. So why stop?
I would still encourage you to stop because every time you lose (which is statistically going to be more often than not), you are feeding money into the gambling monster that is devouring homes, families, and, above all, young men. A recent post in the Washington Journal made this point quite forcefully. The title was “I’m a college student. Gen Z sports betting is wrecking my friends’ lives.” The whole article is worth a read, but let me quote just a part of it:
I’ve watched friends score a few wins on smaller bets only to go on to bigger wagers and then lose it all. During last year’s March Madness, one was down more than $500 and had to come clean to his family because he’d used a card linked to their accounts. His parents grounded him and cut off support for a while. After that, he didn’t hang out with us as much, saying he was embarrassed after the losses…
I have one friend who used money from a part-time job to bet on NBA games. Once that was gone, he got desperate and started using a family member’s linked account, burning through $600 before they caught on. Another teammate convinced his parents to allow him to make a $50 bet for “fun.” After losing, he secretly used a shared credit card to try to recoup his losses. Another friend ended up selling his gaming console and a pair of shoes to cover a $500 bet that didn’t pan out.
You might think to yourself, “I can handle it,” and you might be right. But even if you can handle it, every time you place a bet and win, you are taking money from someone who might be using their parent’s credit card. Every time you place a bet and lose, DraftKings or FanDuel has more money to push gambling to more and more people, many of whom will be addicted. You are pouring money into something that is eating away at our civilization.
You might think to yourself, “Well, I’m not responsible for that. If they can’t control their gambling, they should stop. Some people are wasting their lives playing video games. Should I forever swear off video games so Nintendo doesn’t become more powerful?” I can appreciate this pushback, but I think it misses the mark, because gambling is unique both in its amount and its nature. The amount of people whose lives are being wrecked is alarming, especially for young men. In fact, it’s so alarming that a well-known podcaster recently admitted that he was wrong to support legalizing gambling and would no longer advertise for them on his show because of the damage being done to young men and of the predatory practices of betting companies.
Gambling is also different in the kind of activity it is. Gambling is inherently high risk, high reward activity, and especially for young men whose brains are developing, that’s like catnip. There’s a reason that most of the addiction and relational damage happening right now is among young men. And it’s not just a few here and there. An article by the Economist referenced a survey by the NCAA that found “28% of 18-34-year-old men who use sports-betting apps said that they have had trouble meeting a financial obligation because of a lost bet.” 1 in 4 young men who gamble have gambled to the point where it hurt them.
God tells us to love our neighbors. No, I can’t be obsessed with every possible problem someone somewhere could have to that point that I don’t do anything. But that’s not what this is. This is 28% of young men using betting-apps struggling financially as a result. Knowing that betting is having such terrible results in so many lives, it raises the question of whether or not you should really feed something that you know is destroying lives.
Sports betting is here, and it’s likely here to stay. Everyone will have to give an account to the Lord for how they do and don’t spend their money, including whether they put money on a bet or not. I can’t judge you, only God can judge. But one day God will judge you, and He will judge me. So we need to make sure we’re ready for that day.
With that in mind, I simply want to send out a warning. In a culture that is pushing gambling and participating in gambling to the tune of billions of dollars, I want to be the contrarian who says I don’t think you should gamble. Gambling is addictive. Gambling tends to be pretty wasteful. And gambling is right now destroying a whole lot of lives. “Can I gamble” is the wrong question. “Should I gamble” is a better question, and I would say “No.”
Ben Hicks is the Associate Pastor at Colonial Hills Baptist Church in Indianapolis. This article originally appeared on his Substack.
Photo by Jacob Townsend on Unsplash
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