The Harm of Online Sports Betting and the Christian Response
American Christians have long observed the ever-extending creep of cultural decline. From the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision recognizing same-sex marriage to the pervasive cultural acceptance of transgender identities, American Christians are no longer surprised by cultural decay. Living in a fallen world forces one to presume the inevitable degression of an increasingly depraved society.
It is precisely in this cultural milieu that Christians are continuously forced to respond to an expanding cultural cancer—sports betting. In a 2018 landmark judicial decision, the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in the case, Murphy v. National Collegiate Athletic Association. This monumental decision paved the way for states to legalize gambling and sports betting without federal impediment. As of this writing, thirty-nine states plus Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico have legalized variations of sports betting.
Following the 2018 Supreme Court decision, the American Gaming Association gleefully released a statement assuring viewers that gambling wouldn’t affect sports legitimacy: “Through smart, efficient regulation, this new market will protect consumers, preserve the integrity of the games we love, empower law enforcement to fight illegal gambling and generate new revenue for states, sporting bodies, broadcasters and many others.”
Anticipating the shifting cultural winds toward legalization, the National Basketball Association commissioner, Adam Silver, wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in 2014 calling for legalized sports betting: “One of my most important responsibilities as commissioner of the N.B.A. is to protect the integrity of professional basketball and preserve public confidence in the league and our sport…But I believe that sports betting should be brought out of the underground and into the sunlight where it can be appropriately monitored and regulated.”
After seven years of legalization, sports betting has indeed been brought out of the underground and has ascended into the national spotlight. Sports betting is now culturally ubiquitous. According to a recent study, National Basketball Association and National Hockey League fans were inundated with three gambling advertisements per minute during games. Sports betting is clearly profitable, and businesses are primed to financially flourish. Yet data increasingly paints a bleak picture of the effects of sports betting.
Sports Betting Delegitimizes Competition
In less than a decade of legalization, the reality is stunning—gambling scandals have cascaded throughout sports leagues. Without any exaggeration, nearly every major sport has suffered a damaging gambling scandal.
In 2021, Major League Soccer suspended Felipe Hernandez for betting on two M.L.S. games. In October 2023, the National Hockey League found Shane Pinto guilty of making proxy bets through his friends. In April 2024, Jontay Porter was banned for life by the National Basketball Association for giving non-public information to bettors. The next year in October 2025, Terry Rozier was arrested and accused of intentionally removing himself from a game for the benefit of bettors. In total, 34 people were arrested including well-known coach and Hall of Famer, Chauncey Billups, for using and providing insider information for illegal gambling profit.
The National Football League hasn’t been immune either but has been infected by almost too many gambling scandals to count. In November 2019, Josh Shaw was suspended for betting on NFL games on multiple occasions. A few years later, Calvin Ridley was suspended for an entire season for betting on games involving his own team. In April 2023, five players were suspended (three indefinitely) for betting on NFL games. In a separate indictment later the same year, four players were suspended (three indefinitely) for betting on NFL games.
Yet none of these scandals have been more damaging than the ones in Major League Baseball, the same league that refuses to reinstate Pete Rose for betting on MLB games in the 1980s. In March 2024, the inarguably best MLB player, Shohei Ohtani, was the victim of theft by his translator (Ippei Mazuhara) in a story fit for Hollywood. In a strange and unusual turn of events, Ippei allegedly stole upwards of $17 million from Shohei to fund his gambling addiction. Beyond Shohei’s interpreter’s gambling scandal, more sinister sports betting scandals have been recently associated with baseball. In June 2024, the MLB suspended, banned, or fired players and an umpire who bet on games. Perhaps most egregiously, Luis Ortiz and Emmanuel Clase await trial for colluding with bettors to throw balls at predetermined times.
Spectators love sports because they promote invaluable attributes: character, commitment, courage, leadership, skill, and the highest degree of excellence in athletic form. Yet sports betting casts dark shadows on all these attributes. Whereas genuine competition pits the best competitors against one another, sports betting precipitously opens the door for corruption. Instead of genuine competition, spectators are left wondering whether athletes are taking actions solely to enrich their personal bank accounts. Sports betting shakes the very foundation of what establishes sporting competition by placing serious doubt in the equity of a fair playing field.
Sports betting delegitimizes genuine competition. When spectators are left wondering whether games or an entire league is rigged, something has gone horribly amiss. Sports betting has not encouraged the attainment of culturally enriching attributes commonly associated with sports. Instead, sports betting is quickly killing the legitimacy and greatest character (and physical) development that sports have to offer. The bleak potential future currently on offer is where spectators, rather than observing and appreciating feats of athleticism, are wringing their hands in the stands nervously wondering whether their bet on the outcome will be thwarted by the bets of the players on the field–a ballpark full of gamblers on either side. Non-betting spectators might as well watch a live feed of a Vegas casino.
Sports Betting Is Shadow Funded
In a recent state election to legitimize sports betting in Missouri, an exorbitant amount of money spuriously made its way into the election. In a tour de force, a gambling coalition, Winning for Missouri Education, spent over $40 million promoting Amendment 2, convincing Missouri voters to legalize sports betting. This astronomical financial investment was the most expensive ballot measure in state history (overshadowing the $31 million spent on an abortion measure in the same year). The financial investment worked as Missourians narrowly passed Amendment 2 to legalize sports betting by 50.1% (less than 5,000 votes). Sports betting officially became legal as of December 1, 2025.
Especially when it comes to morally questionable legislation, Christians would be wise to follow the money. Unsurprisingly, the greatest financial backers for the gambling coalition are two sports betting behemoths: FanDuel and DraftKings. These two companies poured tens of millions of dollars of outside money into Missouri, trying to convince Missourians that legalized sports betting would be advantageous for educational funding (though some have raised genuine concerns whether any money will go towards education).
While it’s unsurprising that colossal betting companies backed legalizing sports betting, the primary financial backers for these companies is surprising. FanDuel and DraftKings spent millions on Amendment 2, but both companies are heavily influenced and deeply connected to the most powerful financial investment firms in the world: Vanguard and BlackRock. The two foremost investors in DraftKings are Vanguard and BlackRock respectively, while FanDuel is owned by Flutter Entertainment whose two primary institutional shareholders are unsurprisingly Vanguard and BlackRock.
At the very least, Christians should cut through the marketing pretense and connect the financial dots. It’s fair to wonder why the two largest investment firms in the world would pour money into state ballot measures. Undoubtedly, these firms have made financial calculations based upon their perceived profit margins with little concern for the impact on sports or the lives of sports betters. The legalization of sports betting has been bought and paid for by some of the biggest financial companies in the history of the world. If Christians were not skeptical of sports betting already, this fact should make them skeptical.
Sports Betting Is a Cultural Cancer
Sports betting might seem innocuous, but it’s not. Just as cancer decays the body, often undetected, from the inside, so too does sports betting decay a culture. What begins as benign entertainment quickly burgeons into socially destructive waves that leave individuals and families in its wake.
With the legalization of sports betting in most states, data paints a clearer picture of the effects on both bettors and society. According to a 2025 study from Siena College Research Institute, twenty-two percent of all Americans have an active online sports betting account. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly the same percentage of Americans who have blue eyes (22% to 27%). Sports betting is not a niche allure, but a widespread interest.
The same study shows 52% of bettors have “chased” a bet, meaning they continue betting to make up for past losses, while 54% claim to make one to two bets per week. Unsurprisingly, 70% of bettors admit that they have lost more money than they’ve won.
Beyond the financial concern of lost money is the cultural cost of sports betting, especially among the most vulnerable. Sports betting is overwhelmingly targeted to and consumed by young men. The Siena College Research Institute found that while 22% of all Americans have an online sports betting account, 48% of those accounts belong to men ages 18-49. A 2023 study done by Sports Betting Activities Survey found that two-thirds of all American men have made at least one sports bet. Targeting young men becomes more obvious when one considers the celebrities chosen to promote sports betting. DraftKings and BetMGM have solicited and handsomely paid for the endorsements and promotional services from the likes of Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, Kevin Hart, Tony Gonzalez, Neil Patrick Harris, and even Lebron James to name a few. The companies use slogans with the express purpose of feeding base desires that resonate with young men longing for meaning and importance: “Make it legendary,” and “The crown is yours.”
These star-studded celebrities and athletes are chosen for one, primary objective: to appeal to young men. These companies have succeeded in luring young men to sports betting, but the cultural cost is on the verge of destroying young men’s lives and the lives of those around them.
According to American Institute for Boys and Men, there is a growing correlation between cultural destruction and the proliferation of sports betting. Where online sports betting has become legalized, turning every smartphone into a bookie, credit scores have dropped by more than three times as much. Similarly, bankruptcy rates have increased dramatically where online sports betting has become legalized. After three to four years of legalization, bankruptcy rates increase 25-30%, translating to roughly 30,000 more bankruptcies in America. Where states have legalized online sports betting, credit card debt collections have increased 8%, auto loan delinquencies have increased 9%, and debt consolidation loans are up 10%.
But the destruction of sports betting isn’t limited to the young men who are the most susceptible. While young men are the most adversely affected by sports betting, those around them experience collateral suffering as well. According to the American Time Use Survey, young men between ages 18-24 experience 110-minute increase in leisure per day with the onset of legalized sports betting—time that is often taken from education, work, and healthy relationships. Similarly, a 2024 study showed that when sports betting is legalized, intimate partner violence rises by 10% (the rate further increases in states that have legalized mobile betting). Due to both the emotional turmoil and addictive nature of sports betting, a recent study found that young adults (between ages 18-29) who engage in sports betting report increased symptoms of depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and loneliness.
Any society that perpetuates the widespread degeneration of their young men is destined for destruction. When young men writ large neglect to learn the attributes of self-control, hard work, selflessness, and moral character, everyone in the community eventually suffers. No culture can thrive, let alone survive for long when young men are inundated with promises for purpose, meaning, and grandeur through self-destructive means. When young men fall into financial and relational crisis, the culture is soon to follow.
Perhaps most surprisingly, this cultural downfall has been hastened by an unsuspecting voting bloc that is motivated by libertarian promises. As the Turkish proverb says, “When the axe came into the forest, the trees said, ‘The handle is one of us.’” The expected freedom of gambling and sports betting thus far hasn’t brought the promised benefits and blessing. Instead, the data shows that voters have been misled and deceived. Sports betting has written a big check that our culture can’t cash.
Sports Betting Can Be Sinful
Christians should go the Bible for answers regarding sports betting. However, as expected, searching the Bible for the terms “gambling” or “sports betting” is a futile exercise. While the terms aren’t found in the Bible, applicable principles certainly are. The core tenets of gambling and sports betting can be found voluminously in Scripture, but always from a negative standpoint.
Like most of creation, money is not inherently immoral. In fact, Jesus affirms the proper use of money by commanding us to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s” (Matthew 22:21). In the parable of the talents (large sum of money), Jesus commends the servants who increase their master’s money (Matthew 25:14-30). The Bible doesn’t warn about money, but it does warn about the love of money.
God warns that “the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,” (1 Timothy 6:10), instead calling Christians to “keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have” (Hebrews 13:5). Understanding the human heart, God warns that “he who loves money will not be satisfied with money,” (Ecclesiastes 5:10), while illuminating the dichotomy that “no one can serve two masters…you cannot serve God and money” (Matthew 6:24). In fact, God places such a premium on the sin of greed, He lists it among various sins that keep people from entering the kingdom of God (i.e., sinful identity instead of an identity in Christ, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
While ancillary desires are present in sports betting (e.g. entertainment, boredom, social inclusion, etc.), the foundational desire is often greed. The allure of sports betting is the combination of every base desire—being entertained and associated with a preferential group while making a profit. Rarely does anyone place a bet with the express purpose or expectation of losing money. The bettor’s heart desire is to make money quickly without doing commensurate work.
Not only does the Bible warn about greedy motivations, but also God warns against hastily making money. God not only cares about our heart motivations behind attaining money, but He equally cares about how we attain it. God warns the church that “if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either,” (2 Thessalonians 3:10), while positively affirming “he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need” (Ephesians 4:28). God commends money made through hard work, yet warns, “wealth gained hastily will dwindle” (Proverbs 13:11). Long before sociological data correlated sports betting with familial devastation, God warned, “Whoever is greedy for unjust gain troubles his own household” (Proverbs 15:27). Sports betting not only promotes greed but also encourages our base desire to make money without properly earning it.
Finally, God warns against making money at the expense of the poor. The simple, economic reality is that for every bet that wins, many others must lose. Sports betting is a big business and stands to make an exorbitant profit due to most bettors losing, the great majority of whom are low-income. While young men are the generational group most affected by sports betting, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the socio-economic group most negatively affected by sports betting is low-income households.
Whether sports bettors wish to acknowledge reality or not, every winning bet has numerous correlating losing bets, often by the poorest of our society. God does not take these actions lightly but decisively warns against taking advantage of the poor. Those who intentionally take advantage of the poor set themselves against God Himself. God profoundly warns, “Do not rob the poor because he is poor, or crush the afflicted at the gate; for the Lord will plead their case and take the life of those who rob them” (Proverbs 22:22-23).
When Christians understand these basic, biblical principles of money and God’s commands, we are better positioned to see different moral levels regarding money and games. While Christians are wise to morally reject sports betting, we can have freedom of conscience when considering tertiary issues, such as friendly, low stakes buy-in games, penny slots, etc. While tertiary questions can be left to freedom of Christian conscience, big business of sports betting checks too many boxes of Scripture’s warnings. Since the Bible isn’t silent about gambling and sports betting, neither must Christians be silent.
A Christian Response
While cultural reform doesn’t happen overnight, Christians can collectively be the cultural catalyst for positive change. We are commanded to not be afraid (Joshua 14:27), but instead to walk faithfully with the Lord. Christian faithfulness in every arena of life is not predicated on immediate outcomes, but rather by trusting the Lord who will do all things rightly (Psalm 145:17).
Therefore, Christians would be wise to prayerfully consider responding to the expanding influence of sports betting in the following ways:
- Prayerfully trust the Lord when tempted to fear or when anxious regarding the cultural effects of sports betting;
- Hold to biblical convictions regarding sports betting;
- Refrain from using and participating in sports betting;
- Teach and train your children about the evils of gambling and sports betting;
- Withhold all support from sports betting companies and promotions;
- Have a dialogue about the cultural and biblical problems of sports betting with other Christians;
- Vote against all policies and amendments that legalize or implement sports betting;
- Contact policy makers and encourage them to honestly consider the cultural ills of sports betting
- Hope in the Lord that our culture will “know the truth, and the truth will make you [us] free” (John 8:32).
As Christians, we aren’t surprised when our culture makes unwise and sinful decisions. But neither can we stay silent in cultural foolishness nor deception. God’s people have always been called to have a prophetic voice: speaking the truth to the foolish, calling the culture to repentance, and showing our neighbors a better way in Christ Jesus. When the very soul of our culture is at stake, sports betting just simply isn’t worth the gamble.
Image Credit: Caravaggio, The Cardsharps (c. 1594). Wikimedia Commons.
