Mark W. Christy, PhD
Those who have read the entirety of God’s Word know that it never says, ‘Thou shall not gamble.’ This being the case, it might be tempting to conclude that gambling is not a divinely prohibited activity. This approach to seeking counsel from God’s Word, however, is inherently flawed because the same reasoning could easily allow one to support all manner of substance abuse (other than alcohol). In this article, various teachings and principles will be extracted from Scripture to demonstrate gambling to be biblically prohibited.
Commonly, those who support gambling will draw support from verses that discuss the ancient practice of casting lots. Before Pentecost, this practice was indeed allowed to happen without any condemnation from God in His Word. Nevertheless, casting lots was performed for the purpose of making decisions (Ex 28:30; Lev 8:8; 16:7-10; Num 27:21; Josh 7:14-18; Jdg 20:18; 1 Sam 14:41-43; 28:6; Jonah 1:7; Acts 1:7). Essentially, it was a way to discern God’s will in a time when God’s people were not indwelled by the Spirit. Unlike gambling, nothing of value was ever put at risk because the casting of lots was not viewed as a game of chance. Rather, the outcome was viewed as that which was sovereignly chosen by God. This difference points to the first reason why gambling, unlike the casting of lots, is unbiblical.
Basically, gambling by default promotes the idea of chance over and against the Bible’s teaching on the absolute sovereignty of God. Those who choose to believe in chance and thereby credit it with the outcome in their gambling endeavors are by connection denying God’s sovereignty. In His place, they are uplifting an elusive, spiritual force that is somehow endowed with the sovereign ability to oversee the outcome of their gambling exercises even while it exerts no direct control.
By placing their money (and any other assets) in the power of this inept force, gamblers completely fail to practice proper biblical stewardship. Proper financial stewardship recognizes that all belongs to the Lord. As Psalm 24:1 puts it, “The earth is the Lord’s, and all it contains.”[1] Whatever financial assets a person has been given to manage, they should realize that they have been given a trust by God, and so they should employ wisdom in making investment choices. Jesus, in the Parable of the Talents, affirms this by commending those servants who used their monies to make sound investments (Matt 24:14-30). If a faithful steward is striving to employ wisdom in how they manage their assets, they would never invest in a game of chance, for this would reveal their refusal to safeguard God’s resources in accordance with God’s will.
Besides failing as stewards, gamblers also demonstrate their rebellion against God’s command for all people to work for their financial gains. In Genesis 3:19, God declares, “By the sweat of your face you will eat bread.” In Proverbs 12:11, the Lord provides wisdom whereby people can make good decisions in regard to their financial pursuits. Specifically, He says, “He who tills his land will have plenty of bread, but he who pursues worthless things lacks sense.” While the identification of financial pursuits which are truly worthwhile require a lot of discernment, those which are worthless, like gambling, should be readily obvious. As all know, gambling offers no definitive return on investment, and indeed, any return one may obtain occurs in a manner that lies beyond their own ability to control. To put this another way, gambling and sound judgment are polar opposites.
At this point, it should be clear that gambling is sourced from inept decision making that fails to properly consider God’s word in regard to financial management. Underlying this practice, one will also find greed entrenched in the human heart. While such greed can certainly be among those who pursue more outwardly worthwhile investment opportunities, any financial activity that is not based upon the Word of God can only be founded upon sin. Since gambling is just such an activity, then its source must be sin within the human heart. When a person decides to use their time and resources to acquire money via gambling, they are choosing to go after their neighbor’s assets without performing a meaningful service to their neighbor who would, in turn, reimburse them financially. Still worse, they are teaching their neighbor to conduct themselves as well in this foul manner. According to Scripture, any attempt to acquire that which belongs to one’s neighbor through unbiblical means is condemned as covetousness (Ex 20:17; Deut 5:21). To avoid covetousness, Christians are commanded by Paul to “make it [their] ambition to lead a quiet life and attend to your own business and work with your hands” (1 Thess 4:11).
In conclusion, a careful study of Scripture proves gambling to be a vice. This harmful practice has been shown to be a denial of God’s sovereignty, a rejection of sound financial stewardship principles, an erosion of the biblical work ethic, and sinful activity built upon covetousness. Since this is so, all believers should avoid gambling and teach their neighbors to do the same.
[1]All Scripture is taken from NASB1995.