Let me get all my caveats out the way upfront. I have never had a penchant for gambling. I’ve no interest in horse or dog racing and I don’t play poker or any card games. What is more, I never knew my Great Grandfather because, as I understand it, he was an avid gambler who abandoned his family and ended up in and out of prison due to gambling debts. One hardly needed a clearer lesson in the dangers of gambling. Given my family history, and the fact that my Grandad was saved in traditional Brethren Assemblies in which my Dad was also raised, it’s not all that surprising that gambling was absolutely verboten in our house – even joining in with a raffle at a summer fête or something was deemed unacceptable.

The closest I have ever come to gambling was when I was a student. I occasionally signed up online to get a free £10 stake from a betting company and would bet it in on football matches in tiny increments to make it stretch (like 20p and 50p stakes). This meant I had no money of mine riding on anything. It also meant that when the £10 stake was gone, so was I. But even that risk-free form of gambling, I haven’t done for about 20 years. All of which is to say, I have no skin in this particular game – I don’t gamble and I don’t have any great desire to start. I have no need to justify my own practice here, which wouldn’t offend those who think gambling is wrong.

Only, here’s the kicker, I cannot find anywhere in scripture that says gambling is wrong. I have looked. I have heard numerous arguments that claim it is morally wrong from a biblical perspective, but the arguments simply don’t seem to stack up. I have no need to justify it – I don’t gamble – and I think there are all sorts of social and personal reasons why it might be stupid (emphasis on might be here), but sinful? I’m struggling to find it.

Let’s start with the most obvious point: there is no straightforward command against gambling in scripture. The word ‘gambling’ isn’t in scripture and there is no ‘thou shalt not gamble’ command. Of course, that sort of biblicism doesn’t settle anything, but it bears saying a plain and unmistakable command does not exist, which would help the cause of the abolitionists if it did.

But maybe there are some relevant biblical principles. Typical of arguments against gambling are this (Christian Institute) and this (Douglas Groothius) article. I think there are some evident flaws, that don’t require a great deal of prodding, in the reasoning offered. Let me run through some examples.

The Christian Institute (CI) article insists there are only three legitimate ways to gain money, but offers no biblical grounds for the claim. But even on their own three legitimate ways, they call one ‘genuine exchange’ and it is difficult to see how two consenting parties entering into an agreed gambling arrangement is not making a genuine exchange based on terms. They even consider taxation ‘genuine exchange’ despite most people not agreeing to it, but simply being subject to it. If taxation is genuine exchange – and the bible is absolutely clear that it is – gambling, it seems to me, is an even more genuine exchange that all parties have mutually entered into. CI claim gambling is a form of robbery despite all parties mutually agreeing to enter on those terms but insist taxation is not robbery despite both parties not mutually consenting to enter into terms. Scripture is clear, however, tax is not robbery, which makes it hard to argue gambling is on that basis.

The CI article insists that gambling appeals to covetousness and greed, which is idolatry. They go on to cite verses against greed and idolising money. Clearly, covetousness and greed are sinful. However, they state too much here. The question is whether gambling inherently does this and, even if it potentially appeals to such things, whether one is able to gamble without being covetous or greedy. Work (more on which shortly) may also appeal to covetousness and greed – I have even been to job interviews that explicitly asked whether I was ‘money-motivated’ i.e. I will work harder for more pay. Does that mean work, which can appeal to covetousness and greed, is therefore inherently idolatrous? Of course not! The bible is quite clear it isn’t, even though it does warn of the dangers of idolatry even in our work. As John Calvin famously said, the human heart is a factory of idols; we can make almost anything idolatrous. That something may appeal to an idolatrous tendency doesn’t make it idolatrous in and of itself.

The CI article goes on to insist that gambling directly depends on people incurring financial loss and this is not ‘do[ing] to others what you would have them do to you’. But all parties enter into whatever game or situation they enter on the explicit understanding of the rules. They are, in fact, quite content with the prospect of winning and losing. It is the same basis on which people play sports. If it is not a failure to ‘do unto others…’ to tackle them in a game of football and prevent them scoring a goal – and all the more so in professional sports where income is directly tied to outcome, such as goal bonuses – it is difficult to see how this doesn’t apply in exactly the same way to gambling arrangements. The article cites business practices to this end, but inherent to running a business is a desire to make money over and above your competitors. Every positive business transaction your company has involves financial loss for your direct competitors. But this is the nature of business and it is the terms on which everybody enters the market. If it not failing to ‘do unto others…’ to sell my wares at the expense of the competition, it is difficult to see how gambling is any different.

Most of the rest of the CI article tries to address things that are not inherent to gambling. It insists gambling is ‘reckless use of resources’. I’m not quite sure how we define that. If one enjoys it as a pastime and you spend £20 on a evening doing so, it is unclear how this is different to any other pastime which makes you no money, but costs you £20 for the sheer enjoyment of whatever you are doing. Why can this not be considered a hobby or pursuit that is simply for fun which comes with an inherent financial cost like every other hobby or pursuit? How is it any different to spending money on going to cinema or to watch the football? Even if we perceive a difference, there is no biblical ground to insist there is any.

Similarly, the charge that gambling is addictive is undeniable. But then, so is drinking alcohol and the bible is quite clear the latter is not sinful simply because it might be addictive. It doesn’t forbid alcohol, but commends moderation. The potential addictiveness of gambling might be a reason to avoid it if you are prone to it, but it isn’t an argument for it being sinful so much as doing it moderately. Likewise, that gambling disproportionately affects the poor. But all manner of things disproportionately affect the poor but that doesn’t make them inherently sinful. It is sinful of companies – gambling or otherwise – to exploit the vulnerability of the poor. I agree with that. But that does not make gambling inherently sinful of itself; it makes companies exploiting the poor sinful when they exploit the poor.

I think most these arguments lack any biblical credibility and some of them are not quite the biblical argument against the practice as is often assumed. The most common attempt at a biblical argument against gambling – and it is potentially the strongest one offered – centres around the biblical principles on work. But even this falls down in several respects (you will have to read the two linked articles above to see the arguments in full).

First, the entire argument is undercut if somebody is gambling and does not consider it their work. All the arguments about ‘good work’ and the dignity of work – argument with which I agree – all become moot when a person says, ‘but I am gambling as a pastime, a hobby, a bit of fun’. Suddenly, all the arguments about work are irrelevant because nobody is calling it or considering it work.

Second, despite every attempt to try, I am still entirely unconvinced this is any different to the purchasing of stocks and shares. I am told those who bet on horses, other sporting event or play poker will insist there is more skill involved than many credit. Is there an element of “luck” (for want of a better term)? Of course! But there are elements of skill, planning and thought too. This is exactly the same as business investments and playing the stock market. I appreciate the consistent position of my father, who felt playing the stock market was essentially gambling and as a gambling abolitionist, determined he shouldn’t do that any longer. But those who insist business investment and the stock market is any different to gambling on football, for example, I do not find compelling – all the same elements exist in both cases. You cannot justify the one without justifying the other.

Third, Douglas Groothius in particular makes an argument from Isaiah 65 to the sovereignty of God and the wrongness of gambling. I found the reasoning specious for a few reasons. First, we have examples of people casting lots in scripture specifically on the basis of a belief in the sovereignty of God even over the lot. The belief and trust in God’s sovereignty isn’t undermined by playing games of “chance” (for want of a better term). Second, it’s no more failing to recognise the sovereignty of God by playing in a game of football whose outcome is uncertain than it is to enter, for example, a poker tournament whose outcome is uncertain. There really doesn’t seem to be a straight line between denial of God’s sovereignty and gambling, or sport, or business investments or any other thing whose outcome is uncertain.

Now, having said all that, I can give you lots of reasons why I don’t think gambling is a good idea. There are clearly a set of reasons why I don’t personally gamble. But none of those reasons are strictly biblical ones. You might put them under the bracket of ‘wisdom’. They might be good ideas, they might be credible reasons, they may be social or personal or just sensible. But none of them render gambling sinful. At best, it makes it unwise and, more likely, just something that I don’t think is worth doing akin to my well-publicised views on camping or golf.

Now, if you disagree with my reasons for not gambling, I don’t see enough in scripture for me to excommunicate you from the church, to mandate that you stop or to insist that Jesus says you oughtn’t to be doing it. And, frankly, I don’t think any of the articles claiming that gambling is sinful offer enough evidence to that effect either. Am I going to go out my way to encourage you to start gambling? Probably not. But is it sinful? I struggle to make that case biblically.