Making Wagers and Losing Crosses

By Alex Mace

As an avid football fan, I regularly watch sports. I’m thankful I live in Central Time and don’t have to worry about football starting during church services.

This year, and it seems increasingly every year, I receive ads for sports gambling at an alarming rate. I seemingly can’t go a single ad break without seeing an advertisement such as “Bet $5, get $200 free.” It is not only annoying seeing the same ad repeatedly for the three-hour duration of a football game; it has raised questions for me about who is using these apps for sports gambling.

The NCAA released a survey last year that of the 3,527 18- to 22-year-olds they asked, 58% have placed a bet on sports. This is a concerning number for me. When we look at the entire scale of sports in general, it should give us more pause when thinking about gambling.

Last year was the most viewed Super Bowl, with more than 120 million viewers. The NFL set a limit of three sports gambling ads during the Super Bowl. The NFL also sets limits on this in its other game broadcasts. Only six gambling ads per NFL broadcast can be aired by the league’s authorized partners. However, social media and other sports set no such limit. The availability of sports gambling, and the rate at which 18- to 22-year-olds have adopted it, should raise serious questions for us about how we communicate about gambling to our congregations.

The Book of Discipline says, “Gambling contradicts faith in God whose covenants in the Old Testament promise to care for God’s people and whose Son in the New Testament taught us to trust in the goodness and generosity of the Father toward all (Deuteronomy 28:1–14; Matthew 6:6–15; 25-33). Gambling lacks both the dignity of wages earned and the honor of a gift. It takes substance without yielding a fair exchange. Because it excites greed, it destroys the initiative of honest toil and often results in addiction. Government sponsorship of lotteries only enlarges the problem. We refrain from gambling in all its forms because of the evils it encourages, for conscience’s sake and as a witness to the faith we have in Christ.”

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“Scripture does not explicitly prohibit gambling, nor does it encourage gambling.”

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Challenges

How should we engage with our culture, knowing the prevalence of sports betting and its prevalence on college campuses? Pastors have a hard task when it comes to communicating with congregants about gambling.

The first challenge comes from the stories of Scripture, where lots are cast to make decisions. Scripture does not explicitly prohibit gambling, nor does it encourage gambling. Gambling or games of chance have probably existed since humanity took its first breath. If not explicitly for money, we have all tried to take some risk for some gain. However, we must be honest that Scripture does not tell us not to gamble.

The second challenge is the prevalence of gambling in our current culture: 38 out of the 50 United States have legalized sports gambling. This is something that is not going away. We need to make sure our congregations are aware of why we refrain from gambling.

So if these are our challenges, how should we proceed?

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“God has given your body and mind capabilities that can be used to provide your means; why would we waste those gifts on things that are unlikely to happen?”

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Reasons to Refrain

Gambling is something that takes advantage of your hard labor. Because these are games of chance, especially those found at a casino or through state-sponsored lotteries, winning money is not guaranteed to you. The question of whether or not you will make money should be considered in the light of what it costs you to make the money used for the wager. God has given your body and mind capabilities that can be used to provide your means; why would we waste those gifts on things that are unlikely to happen?

We should also examine motivations as to why you are gambling. Do you desire to gain a large sum of money so you can retire and live the life you desire using the money for avarice rather than service? Do we recognize that you are the product making the sportsbook money? The sportsbook desires to make money off of what you have wagered from your own labor, and because of the desire of that sportsbook, you are already in an unfavorable position. This puts the sportsbook and casino in a better position than a state-sponsored lottery. The lottery sponsored by the state attempts to say it is morally positive because it provides for schools, roads, or other public goods while preying on those who are easily addicted.

Another reason to refrain is to care for the weakest among us. A paper recently written titled “Gambling Away Stability: Sports Betting’s Impact on Vulnerable Households” attempted to quantify the impact of gambling. The authors showed through a variety of different means that vulnerable households ended up being the most affected by the legalization of sports betting. These vulnerable households ended up having less money in savings accounts, relied on credit card usage more, and had more overdrafts.

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“We resist gambling and its destructiveness because of our love for our neighbor and the abuses gambling can create for those in desperation.”

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Jesus commands us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. To do this, we must witness to our neighbor and offer the prophetic word against self-destructive things. Having fun predicting something is not inherently wrong. It becomes wrong when someone attaches financial incentives and preys on the weak. We must bear witness to this as we seek to love our neighbor. Love-driven justice shows up here. We don’t refrain from gambling just because it can become a bad habit but because of how it can affect our neighbors. We resist gambling and its destructiveness because of our love for our neighbor and the abuses gambling can create for those in desperation.

I am reminded of Jesus’ words in Mark 8:36 (CEB), “Why would people gain the whole world but lose their lives?” A more modern interpretation could be, “Why would people bet the money line but lose their lives?” The phrase comes from Jesus telling the disciples to put themselves aside, pick up the cross, and follow Him (Mark 8:34, Matthew 16:24–26, Luke 9:23–25). This statement is about discipleship.

The question I have about gambling is whether we know of its addictive effects. Have we taken the time to see families destroyed by misplaced wagers and gambling addictions? Is the chance of money (which is not in your favor) worth letting your cross down?

Paul warns us in 1 Timothy 6:10 (CEB), “The love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Some have wandered away from the faith and have impaled themselves with a lot of pain because they made money their goal.”

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“Gambling, in general, can lead us toward this pain as we make money our goal.”

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Gambling, in general, can lead us toward this pain as we make money our goal. Online hate toward athletes is an alarming trend that has risen specifically because of sports betting. An article from ESPN says, “Signify’s research on social media harassment in global sports found that angry sports bettors drive as much as 45% of all abuse surrounding some major sports tournaments.”

Money is the root of all kinds of evil right here. We need to be aware of what is happening in our world so that we can prophetically call out evil and its sources to love our neighbor better. We should not hate our neighbors because they gamble, but we should be aware of the harm they could be incurring. The rate and speed at which sports gambling has grown, the fact that you can do it from your phone in an instant, and how it can feel like imaginary numbers — not real money, should be deeply concerning for our journey as followers of Jesus.

Knowing that so many of our college students are placing bets on sports, I worry that we have set them up for unknown levels of harm. When I was a kid watching my beloved Michigan Wolverines, I never knew you could bet on the games; I was not exposed to it while watching games with my family. Sometimes sportscaster Brent Musburger would make mention of it to those in the know. But for the most part, betting on sports was hush-hush because of its illegality. However, it has exploded, dominating the conversation before, during, and after the game.

Hopefully this is not screaming into the void, as there has been recently some proposed legislation around limiting advertising and game wagering called the SAFE Bet Act. However, as I previously mentioned, it is already legal in 38 out of 50 states. But for us as church members, sports gambling is a justice issue, and how we talk about it should be centered around God’s love for us and our love for our neighbors.

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