John Piper received this question in Ask Pastor John: “Hello Pastor John .... The bets I place are rather modest at $20–$50 a week. Is modest online sports gambling sinful?”[1] I will return later to give Piper’s answer. I quote this young man to show that this is an important question that is often asked.
Maura J. Casey wrote a devastating article titled "Gambling with Lives." Casey relates some personal gambling tragedies:
A friend of mine told me that to escape the burdens of motherhood she would go to the casinos at 2 A.M. to gamble until 6:30 A.M., when she would go back home and get her kids ready for school. Until the day she didn’t go home in time—unable to stop playing the slots. A worried state legislator called to tell me her husband emptied her sixteen-year-old son’s college fund to gamble at the casinos. A bank manager told me about a customer who inherited $1 million and—aided by using the ATM machines at the casino to withdraw money—gambled it all away. A woman who worked at my daughter’s day care moved her family to Florida in a desperate attempt at a geographic cure after her husband drained money from his ten-year-old’s savings account and couldn’t stop going to the area casinos.[2]
Gambling made the headlines recently, again! The Wall Street Journal reported that an NBA head coach was charged in illegal gambling in association with the Mafia. Portland Trail Blazer coach Chauncey Billups and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, along with thirty other individuals, were indicted for illegal betting and game-rigging in the NBA.[3] Their luck ran out!
Here is how Sarah Eekoff Zystra and Josh Hollinger at The Gospel Coalition reported:
It’s not the first sports-betting scandal since the Supreme Court struck down the law restricting sports betting in 2018. ESPN counts at least 23.
“NBA betting scandal surprise anyone?” ran a headline at the Nevada Independent. “I didn’t think so.”
But the situation’s high probability didn’t make it less serious. The U.S. Senate asked for a report from the NBA, which told its 30 teams it was reassessing its relationship with legal gambling.
The news media are also weighing in.
“The NBA’s gambling scandal was utterly predictable—and other pro sports will be next,” added a columnist for the Los Angeles Times. The New Yorker titled it “The Sports-Betting Disaster,” and The New York Times declared, “Gambling is Killing Sports and Consuming America.”[4]
Albert Mohler noted that in 2018, Americans bet $7 billion on sports, it’s now $150 billion a year. Another $80 billion is being gambled in online casinos. By the end of this decade, Americans are projected to wager as much as $630 billion online.[5]
In this article, let’s examine the arguments for and against gambling.
Arguments For Gambling
Here are two common arguments used to defend gambling: Gambling is entertainment and is another form of investment.
1. Gambling is entertainment
Back to the question John Piper received about gambling in Ask Pastor John: “Hello Pastor John .... The bets I place are rather modest at $20–$50 a week. Is modest online sports gambling sinful?” Pastor John responded: Yes, I think online gambling in general, little or big, is sinful — whether you call it modest or exorbitant. You are spending $50 a week gambling; are you investing $50 in the Lord’s work? Piper also reminded the young man: When we are talking about $50 a week, that is $200 a month, and $2,400 a year. If at age 25 you put $50 dollars a week into a well-invested stock fund, you will, with almost no risk, have $237,000 in the bank when you are 50 years old. That’s a house owned free and clear for what you are risking every week on games.
Gambling for the buzz or entertainment can be addictive. Paul, 1 Timothy 6:17, noted that God has given us all things to enjoy, which would include entertainment. But not all entertainment or recreation becomes an addiction that ruins the individual or his family financially.
Kevin DeYoung wrote that “In his massive book on The Doctrine of the Christian Life, John Frame argues that gambling is often wrong, but not always. He says gambling can be linked to the worship of chance; it can be addictive; it can involve covetousness; it can be a waste of time and money; it can be thought of as a substitute for useful work; and it can fall under the control of organized crime. So, although Frame doesn’t think gambling is sinful in all circumstances it ‘is often or generally sinful, given the conditions in which we live,’ (806-807). Even if plunking down ten dollars in the office pool may be harmless, the gambling industry certainly isn’t. And Christians ought to do more to speak against it.[6]
Paul in 1 Timothy 6:9 warned: “They who will or desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lists, which drown men in destruction and perdition.” One way the love of money can lead to the destruction of the individual is through addiction to gambling. Paul followed that warning with “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But you, O man of God, flee these things.”
Notice that Paul directed his admonitions to the “man.”
Males consistently show higher rates of gambling participation. One study found that 44.2% of young adult males reported gambling compared to 36.6% of young adult females.
I challenge you to click Non-profits for Gambling addiction and note how many pages in Google are filled with non-profits dedicated to helping people addicted to gambling.
Paul provided three principles of right and wrong for the carnal Corinthians who were quoting a popular slogan of the day to justify their selfish abuse of Christian liberty: “All things are lawful.” Paul also mentioned the current slogan and added three qualifications, which I am stating as questions for you to ask if you are wrestling with a Christian liberty issue. Gambling has been referred to as a Christian liberty issue.
1) Is it enslaving for me (1 Cor 6:12)?
Is the Christian liberty problem I am struggling with addictive? Clearly, for many, gambling is not just entertainment anymore. Josh Hollinger wrote: The trouble with that [gambling for entertainment] is the apps are designed to be addictive. And like with so many addictions—gaming, pornography, drugs—you eventually have to chase harder and harder for highs that are smaller and smaller.[7]
2. Is it expedient for me (1 Cor 10:23a)?
Does this hobby, etc., help or hinder my walk with Christ? Has this source of entertainment become an idol or obsession in my life that takes me away from God’s Word, church, and ministry?
3. Is it edifying for others (1 Cor 10:23b)?
Does my involvement in gambling edify others? I associate gambling with social drinking or what some call moderation. Can some believers have a glass of wine with a meal and not become alcoholics? Yes. Norman Geisler, however, wrote that one out of ten social drinkers becomes an alcoholic.[8] That is why I practice total abstinence. In this post, Should Believers Be Teetotalers? I show how John MacArthur, Norman Geisler, John Piper, and Charles Ryrie answer “Yes.”
If someone saw me drinking a glass of Chardonnay or Coors Light at a restaurant and said, “If Dr. White can drink a glass of wine or a can of beer, so can I.” I may not become an alcoholic; however, someone following my example may. This is personal to me. I grew up in the home of an alcoholic. When my dad stepped out of the room for a minute, I took my first drink of beer. I later was on my way to becoming a problem drinker as a teenager. I see a correlation [click to open] with gambling. Each Christian gambler needs to ask himself/herself these three questions and answer honestly about any form of entertainment. Again, God has richly given us all things to enjoy until those blessings become addictive, enslaving, and a hindrance to others.
In addition to the argument that gambling is just entertainment, others defend gambling by arguing that it is just another form of investing, which we will discuss in Part Two.
[1] John Piper, Is it Sinful to Gamble on Fantasy Sports?
[2] Maura J. Casey, “Gambling with Lives” in First Things, November 1, 2009.
[3] Jared Diamond, Louise Radnofsky, Robert O’Connell, The Wall Street Journal, Oct. 23, 2025,
[4] Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra and Josh Hollinger, Young men, Sports Betting, and a Better Way, October 31, 2025.
[5] Albert Mohler, The Briefing, Thursday, December 12, 2024.
[6] Kevin DeYoung, Silent Killers and Silent Christians, The Gospel Coalition, November 17, 2009.
[7] Sarah Eekhoff Zylstra and Josh Hollinger, Young men, Sports Betting, and a Better Way, October 31, 2025.
[8] Norman Geisler, To Drink or Not to Drink. A Sober Look at the Question.