It can often be difficult to reconcile your own personal interests with worshipping God. This is because there are a lot of things in the bible that can be interpreted in certain ways. As such, it’s often tricky to understand what you can, and can’t do. This is also why there are various religious offshoots from the same text. We’ve taken a closer look at whether gambling is a sin, and propose arguments for and against it.
Outright Condemnation
Gambling is massively popular across the world. The advent of the internet has made it easy to play, and many people use pages like OnlineGamblers to find the best online casinos, and start playing. However, some people tend to avoid gambling due to their faith.
However, the bible doesn’t actually say anything specific about gambling being forbidden. In fact, it’s possible that during the time the bible was written, gambling was a hugely popular pastime. Gambling games have been passed down through the ages, and they are likely to have been played for centuries before the bible was put together.
This means that many Christians aren’t worried about gambling, and they believe that it’s completely allowed within the eyes of the Lord. It’s not quite as simple as that for other people though. While gambling isn’t mentioned as a sin, other people think that gambling can lead to sin, which means that it should be forbidden.
The Sin of Greed
This is essentially where people believe that the line for gambling, crosses into being a sin. Because people can end up with a gambling addiction, Christians often feel that gambling leads to the sin of greed. As it is basically chasing after as much money as possible, this is what creates the link to gambling being a sin.
So, while gambling itself isn’t a sin, carrying it out can be a sin if players become consumed by the desire to have more money. In fact, it’s not just greed that can be impacted by gambling, because if people become far too consumed by the desire for money, then they could end up being sinful in other ways as well.
Despite this, the bible is still very much on the fence about gambling. In fact, it’s not specific like other areas that people become focused on. A great example of this, is in relation to sites that attempt to portray gambling as evil.
They don’t tend to use quotes from the bible to make their point. What these sites tend to do, is use quotes from famous Christians. This is a little bit of a manipulative way to try and convince people. It uses an appeal to authority rather than the source of Christianity. This does mean it’s more about people’s own personal opinions rather than what the bible says itself.
Avoiding Sin
As already covered, the sin of greed is the main way for gambling to become a sin. However, it is possible for this to be avoided if you’re careful about the manner that you gamble. A great example of this would be sports betting.
Many people use sports betting as a way to add additional fun to watching sports teams they don’t support. Or in some cases, they bet against the team they support. This is, so that they will have something to dampen the disappointment of their team losing.
It means that the focus of gambling is on having fun, rather than winning lots of money. This allows players to avoid the sin of greed, as they are placing wagers for the focus of having fun rather than winning large amounts of money. Of course, if the size of the wagers is large, then this does negate the fun aspect.
However, if the player ensures that they only place smaller wagers, then this makes sure that fun is the focus, and sin will be avoided. Another way to do this would be to only play demo versions of casino games.
Lots of online casinos offer players the ability to play demo versions of games now. This means that it’s possible to enjoy the game without spending any money. While technically this isn’t gambling, it does mean that players are playing the gambling games. So, it is taking part in some aspects of gambling, and it provides players with the ability to enjoy gambling without committing a sin. This would be the only real way to play without any possibility of greed becoming part of the equation.
Should you Avoid Gambling?
This is something that you need to get square with yourself. If you feel that gambling is morally wrong, then it probably isn’t right for you to take part in it. If you believe that the bible doesn’t condemn gambling so there’s nothing wrong with enjoying it then there’s no reason for you to avoid the act of gambling.
However, it is important to remember that greed is a sin. So, if you start to behave in a greedy manner, and begin to value money more highly than other aspects of life, it’s a sign that you’re starting to carry out sins. This will cause issues with your faith, and make it important for you to find other ways to enjoy yourself.
Just like anything else in life, the main factor to take into account is your own feelings. If you believe you have the self-discipline to avoid greed when gambling, then you shouldn’t be worried about placing bets. However, if you think that you won’t be able to avoid the greed aspect of gambling, then it is probably best that you stick to playing demo versions of games. If you feel that you’re still likely to want to gamble for real, then your best course of action would be to avoid gambling in general.
