Fellowship of Christian Athletes - Question: I frequently gamble, whether it's on a football game, playing the state lottery or matching quarters at school. Is this wrong? I'm beginning to wonder.
Answer: Gambling is stealing by consent just as dueling is murder by consent. Betting is a travesty of stewardship. Christians don't believe in good luck but in God's blessings. If he's entrusted property to you-and he obviously has-then what you own isn't yours. To gamble is to put the Lord's property at risk by greed and chance.
Betting is also an illegitimate appeal to God's providence. We don't live in a chance universe. God promises to meet our needs. He asks us to work, to find employment that serves our fellow man not to seek to get something for nothing. "Treasures gained by wickedness do not profit" (Prov. 10:2). We urge you to put gambling in any form out of your life. If it's a compulsive habit, seek professional help.
- Tom Nelson
Question: Is participating in gambling - from horse racing bets to baseball games to the lottery - considered wrong for Christians?
Answer : Technically you can't find anything specifically in the Bible about gambling, but gambling can be a very serious problem. The "attractive" thing about gambling is that one can make money without the requirement of working. Work is a good thing that God sanctioned to Adam even before the fall as he "tended the Garden." When a person gambles he gets money without effort, diligence, excellence, and character-all of which are required to make money by working. Gambling can be something which one can become more deeply involved in until it becomes an obsession and addiction. As Christians, why not do things God's way, all the way? "Diligent hands will rule, but laziness ends in slave labor" (Proverbs 12:24).
- Tom Nelson
