“Keep your life free from the love of money. Be satisfied with what you have, for he himself has said, ‘I will never leave you or abandon you.'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I have never been to Vegas. I’d like to go someday for the spectacle alone, and to see some fun shows, but that’s honestly about it. Gambling just isn’t something that appeals to me. I’ve only ever been in a casino once, and that was to eat. I’ve never bet on a sport either. I do play some fantasy sports (badly) with my family, but that’s about it. I recognize that I’m in reasonably small company in that especially given my age and sex. In spite of my own distaste for the practice, sport betting in particular has become a big business in the United States thanks to a Supreme Court ruling a couple of years ago that removed all the roadblocks to its nationwide legalization. There have been many voices along the way warning that this isn’t a good path for our country to be walking down. Some news broke yesterday offering up a perfect demonstration of why. Let’s talk about it.

Sports betting used to be something you could only do in certain places. Las Vegas, of course, was on the list. And horse racing tracks. Especially horse racing tracks. I toured Churchill Downs a few years ago, and it’s hard to fully describe what a major part of their operation gambling is. I was shocked. Because of the relatively limited number of options, though, sports betting was certainly a thing, but not all that common of one.

One of the places where sports betting wasn’t legal was the State of New Jersey. Atlantic City was going through a bit of a tough season, and the government of New Jersey wanted to add some extra incentives to try to bring some life back into the East Coast gambling mecca. So, they sued to remove the legal obstacles to their efforts, and they won. The Supreme Court’s decision (whose majority opinion was authored by one of the most conservative justices) didn’t necessarily give the green light to a broad legalization of gambling from coast to coast. Rather, it said that the current laws making it legal in some places and illegal in others was arbitrary and unfair and unconstitutional.

With this legal restraint now lifted, and with Congress (not to mention most state legislative bodies) not having the will to try to create new, constitutionally rigorous and morally sound limits on the practice, sports betting companies went off to the races. State by state previous restrictions on sports betting in particular were lifted, and we entered into a new day of gambling as a nation.

All of a sudden, you couldn’t watch a sporting event without seeing not just one, but several commercials inviting viewers to try one sports betting app or another. They all hired big name celebrities to do the pitching for them. In the weeks leading up to the official lifting of limitations in my own state there was an intense advertising campaign making sure everyone knew what date they could download their apps and get started.

And boy did we get started. Last year alone, sports betting raked in over $13 billion. That’s billion with a capital B. That’s just the revenue the various sports betting companies made. The actual amount wagered was upwards of $150 billion. That’s $150 billion that could have been spent on so many more worthy things. Much of that money was money the gamblers couldn’t actually afford to lose. Families probably had to go without; children probably had to go without because of those losses.

Gambling had long sat on the fringes of our society. Legal restrictions certainly played a role in this, but so did the fact that the church has long held that it was a morally gray practice at best. Gambling away a small amount of money while having fun with friends doesn’t seem like such a big deal, but if God really is the owner of all we count as ours, we are gambling with His money. You wouldn’t want your financial advisor gambling with your money, right? The real problem, though, is that gambling is addictive. Highly addictive. The dopamine hit our brains give us when we win even a little bit is intoxicating.

And casinos and now sports betting outfits sell the promise of winning as vigorously as they possibly can. They want you to believe that your chances of winning are good. They’ll even make sure you do win some at the beginning. They do this because they know that it just takes a few small wins to get you hooked, at which point you are likely to fritter away a whole lot more money, meaning, as the saying goes, “the house always wins.”

Still, for as common as sports betting has become – especially among young men – the one hard and fast rule about the whole endeavor is that people involved in playing sports weren’t supposed to do it. Pete Rose, in spite of being one of the greatest baseball players of all time, is still locked out of the Hall of Fame each year because he was permanently banned from the sport because he gambled on it. If nothing else, given the sheer amount of money that is at stake on a particular sporting event, the thought that a player who has also bet on a contest could intentionally impact an outcome without anyone knowing is a terrifying prospect for both the house and the players alike.

But with the intense popularity of sports betting over the last couple of years, and given that the vast majority of professional athletes fall right into the demographic sweet spot where the most betters are concentrated, did anyone really believe that without some hard and fast and vigorously enforced laws restricting their participation they were never going to get involved? If you did, I’ve got some beachfront property in New Mexico to sell you.

It comes as exactly no surprise at all, then, that the FBI along with some Federal Prosecutors in New York announced the results of a major sting operation to thwart an illegal gambling ring. The activity involved several major mob families from New York as well as former and current NBA players and coaches. One player, Terry Rozier, nicknamed “Scary Terry,” who used to play for my local team, once let participants in the scheme know that he was going to go out of a game early to injury resulting in more than $200,000 in bets on the prospect. So, yes, games were impacted by the actions of players who had a stake in particular outcomes that they had the power to influence. Why watch sports when the outcome is predetermined by players who have bet on it? The whole enterprise is cheapened by this kind of immoral nonsense.

If this whole affair doesn’t cause legislators and sport governing bodies across the nation to sit up and pay attention, to recognize that unrestricted sports betting is not a good thing for sports or the nation more generally, I’m not sure what will. Unfortunately, the pursuit of quick cash is just too tempting for too many people. The author of Hebrews warned against it, but too few seem to have heeded his advice.

The dopamine hit of sports betting and gambling more generally is real. It feels good. It really feels good to win. And perhaps there are some circumstances in which a small amount of money put down in a tightly controlled pool can be pretty harmless fun. But in the vast, vast majority of instances, there’s just nothing positive to be gained by sports betting.

You lose when you lose, of course. I had a conversation just the other day with a guy who lost over $500 because a particular player didn’t perform as well as he usually does. Five hundred dollars! I don’t have that kind of money to lose and I’m pretty sure I make more money than he does. And I have fewer kids too. But you also lose when you win. You lose when you win because you learn by winning that sometimes you win, leading you to play more often. But the odds just aren’t in your favor over the long haul. You lose when you win as well because getting money for doing nothing isn’t good for our souls. It leads us to trust in things other than the God who really can provide all that we need, and who will never leave or abandon us.

If you are thinking about participating in sports betting, think again. It’s just not worth it. You’ll lose nothing by saying no. The games won’t be any less enjoyable. In fact, they’ll probably be less stressful to watch when you know you don’t really have anything at stake in the outcome. You’ll avoid getting hooked, which will lead you to nowhere good. If you have that kind of money available to throw away like that, invest it instead in a kingdom-advancing cause. You’ll feel better about it, and you’ll glorify God by growing His kingdom. You’ll have a positive impact on another person, which is always a good and God-honoring thing. While you’re at it, do that in front of your kids so that can see the good you have done and hopefully be encouraged to pursue that same path in their own lives. Don’t get involved in sports betting. It’s just not worth it.