Is Gambling a Sin?

A couple of you had questions after our Christmas Gala this year. Not a lot, but a couple. So why dedicate an entire article to something only a couple of people asked about? Because I suspect more than a few are asking it, and for those that aren't, it might be a good exercise in knowing how to respond to it.

The theme for this year's Christmas Gala was Casino Royale, and yes, there were cards, dice, and tables that felt very casino-y. To be clear and for the record, we used fake money. No real betting. No real winnings. No chain smoking or pit bosses, either (unless you count Jorge). Just a fun night together.

But it does raise some interesting and long-debated questions: “Is gambling a sin?” “Should the church be doing something like that?” “Where’s the line?” Those questions are worth asking, not just because of the Gala, but also because they can help us, as followers of Jesus, engage culture thoughtfully.

Let’s start with clarity. The Bible does not explicitly condemn gambling, games of chance, betting, or lotteries. There is no verse that says, “You shall not gamble.” That does not mean the Bible is silent on the deeper issues connected to gambling. The Bible consistently warns about the love of money, shortcuts to provision, and misplaced trust.

• 1 Timothy 6:10 - “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”
• Hebrews 13:5 - “Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.’”
• Proverbs 13:11 - “Wealth from get-rich-quick schemes quickly disappears; wealth from hard work grows over time.”

The Bible does not give us a direct rule here; instead, it gives us wisdom.

When people try to prove that gambling is either clearly permitted or clearly condemned, the passages they most often point to involve the casting of lots. So it is important to slow down and look at those texts carefully.

Throughout the Bible, casting lots was used to determine the will of the Lord, not to win money, possessions, or advantage over others.

• Leviticus 16:8 - “He will cast sacred lots to determine which goat will be reserved as an offering to the Lord and which will carry the sins of the people to the wilderness.”
• Joshua 18:10 - “Joshua cast sacred lots in the presence of the Lord to determine which land would be assigned to each tribe.”
• Nehemiah 11:1 - “The leaders cast lots to decide which of the people would live in Jerusalem.”
• Acts 1:26 - “Then they cast lots, and Matthias was chosen to replace Judas.”

In each of these cases, the people were not chasing luck or profit. They were seeking God’s direction. Casting lots was essentially a way of saying, “Lord, You decide.” As Proverbs 16:33 reminds us, “We may throw the dice, but the Lord determines how they fall.”

This was not ancient gambling. It was discernment. Casting lots was not a biblical endorsement of betting any more than rock, paper, scissors is a substitute for prayer or searching the Bible. It was a practice rooted in dependence on God, not the pursuit of gain.

Every church and every follower of Jesus has to decide how to engage cultural issues. One helpful framework is to ask whether something should be rejected, received, or redeemed.

Some things are incompatible with following Jesus and should be rejected outright. Pornography is a clear example. It distorts people made in God’s image and damages souls and relationships.

Some things are morally neutral and depend entirely on how they are used, and can therefore be received with caution. Technology fits here. A phone can disciple you or distract you. The tool itself is not the issue. How it's used is.

Other things can be rethought, reframed, or repurposed. Games, play, and certain forms of entertainment often land here. They are not ultimate, but they can be enjoyed rightly, if redeemed.

The real issue with gambling is not cards, dice, or chance. It is stewardship and exploitation.

This is where the conversation often gets inconsistent. Most of us would not blink an eye at someone paying a few dollars to play a carnival game of chance (think 'ring toss' and winning a stuffed animal). But introduce cards, chips, or dice, and suddenly alarms go off. Functionally, those activities are the same thing. The difference is not the game. The difference is the assumptions we bring with us.

At the heart of this conversation is stewardship. How are we managing what God has entrusted to us? Our money, our time, our habits, and our hearts. For one person, spending a small amount on a game for entertainment may be wise, controlled, and inconsequential. For another, it may be destructive. When gambling begins to control someone rather than remain controlled by them, it has crossed a line. The issue is not chance. The issue is self-control and stewardship.

The second line gambling crosses is exploitation. Gambling, by nature, depends on loss. For one person to win, someone else and usually many others must lose. The Bible consistently calls God’s people to love their neighbor, pursue justice, and refuse to exploit others for personal gain. When gambling moves beyond light entertainment into a system designed to profit from someone else’s misfortune, it becomes ethically problematic.

This is especially true in environments where the system is intentionally stacked against the player. Casinos, betting platforms, and lotteries are not neutral. They are designed to take money in large amounts and return very little. Their profitability depends on people losing money, not winning it. For a follower of Jesus to actively seek financial benefit from another person’s loss is more than unwise. It is inconsistent with the way of Jesus.

Not every game of chance is sinful. But when gambling becomes a stewardship issue or an act of exploitation, it has crossed a moral line.

Addiction is real...and it matters. But addiction is not limited to gambling. People are addicted to food, shopping, work, screens, caffeine, social media, and approval.

If the mere possibility of addiction made something sinful, we would have to remove food from church events. We would never serve dessert. We would ban phones from the building.

Some might argue that even simulated gambling could cause someone else to stumble. But taken to its logical conclusion, that argument becomes unworkable. It would be like saying we should not serve sparkling apple cider in a wine glass because it might awaken a darker struggle.

Pastoral care means being sensitive, not fearful. It means walking with people toward freedom, not eliminating every object that could possibly be misused.

The Bible does not forbid a friendly wager between two players on a tennis court. It does not explicitly prohibit entering a raffle, filling out an office March Madness bracket, or playing a game of chance for fun.

What the Bible does challenge is this. Who or what do you trust for provision? What is shaping your desires? Are you stewarding what God has given you wisely? And does this draw you closer to Jesus or pull you away from Him? At the same time, we should ask whether certain things can be redeemed and leveraged to serve a greater mission and help us connect meaningfully with the culture around us.

Those are the questions that matter most. And they are worth asking far beyond the Christmas Gala.