Religious groups are quick to take a firm stance against gambling. They are some of the first to speak out against a new casino and often campaign against the online gambling industry. Such groups insist that gambling goes against the bible but oddly enough the bible makes no mention of gambling and certainly does not outright speak against its practice.

Biblical figures were actually encouraged by God in the Old Testament to engage in a form of gambling. He instructed the Israelites to cast lots in order to determine his will on numerous occasions. The practice of casting lots is mentioned 70 times in the old testament and 7 times in the New Testament. Basically when there was an important decision to be made such as how to divide land or who to appoint to a special office people would pray unto God and throw sticks or small stones to come to a decision. Similar to flipping a coin or rolling a dice, modern day people would say that it was purely a matter of luck who got the best out of such a result but believers said that the luck of the draw itself was determined by god and the results were final. By this argument gambling alone is certainly not a sin.

The issue then becomes what aspect of gambling makes it so intrinsically sinful. Some would argue that gambling is sinful because it encourages a love of money. The scripture is no doubt vehemently against greed or the love of money. Ecclesiastes 5:10 for example states, "Whoever loves money never has money enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income. This too is meaningless." Luke 16:13 also states, "No servant can serve two master...You cannot serve both God and Money." The thing of it is, most gamblers look at gambling as a form of entertainment and do not have money itself in the forefront of their mind when they play. While they may like the idea of winning money, the vast majority of gamblers are happy to simply enjoy the act itself which does not necessarily exhibit greed. If anything it is Capitalism in of itself that encourages the sort of greed that the bible is speaking about. Ironically enough, that is just the sort of system that many religious groups campaign to protect.

Another argument that is routinely used to back up claims that gambling is a sinful act is the idea that gambling is a way for people to bypass work. The Bible makes it very clear that we must work hard to be successful and that "Lazy hands make a man poor." They feel that if a gambler loses he is wasting the gifts that god has given him and that if he wins he has not done enough to deserve his good fortune. The good fortune itself however would be a gift from god according to the scriptures and those who do not use the money wisely are soon parted from it in any case. Since people must work to earn the money to gamble it does not really bypass work in itself. In our day and age people waste money on a wide variety of things so it doesn't really make sense for gambling in and of itself to be centered out for protest.

While gambling itself is clearly not sinful, becoming addicted to it is a sin. People can become addicted to all sorts of things, drugs, alcohol, sex, video games, even food can make people lose touch with reality and become slaves to their habits. Many of these groups act as though people have no control over their actions and that gambling is too tempting for people not to become addicted to it. This perhaps reflects their own inability to abstain from temptations. Temptation is all around us and it starts from within. Anything can become sinful if taken to extremes and gambling is the same way.

If you are really concerned about whether or not gambling is sinful pick up your Bible and read the good book for yourself. Don't take our word for it or the word of anyone else. People often forget that many portions of the Bible can be interpreted in any number of ways, especially if someone takes something out of context. People often make the mistake of taking what a fellow church goer or a priest says at face value without giving it much thought. Do not make this mistake.