There are no explicit prohibitions against gambling in sacred Scripture, but there certainly are plenty of reminders that some of the basic properties of gambling are not conducive to a solid spiritual life. 

In the Old Testament we get: “Wealth won quickly dwindles away, but gathered little by little it grows” (Proverbs 13:11). In the New Testament, another explicit warning: “Those who want to be rich are falling into temptation and into a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires, which plunge them into ruin and destruction” (1Timothy 6:9).

The only overt gambling reference I found in Scripture is the game the Roman soldiers played at the foot of the cross.

Still, the Church does not explicitly condemn gambling — see Section 2413 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Bingo games or rounds of poker with friends are not going to endanger our immortal souls. 

I am the quintessential $2 bettor. I have been to Vegas and other casinos maybe 15 times in the last 40 years, where I would gamble with a designated amount of money and continue gambling until that same amount of money rests comfortably on the dealer’s side of the table. I do buy lottery tickets, but ONLY when the “jackpot” gets to be over $700 million — that is a number I’m comfortable investing my two dollars on.

It used to be hard to gamble. To do it legally, up until just a few years ago, one had to drive five hours to the Nevada desert or go to a racetrack, or one of those shady card clubs in Gardena. All other forms of gambling — which were rife by the way — were done so illegally through bookies and other nefarious types.

Now, gambling has gone mainstream. The National Football League generates billions of dollars in gambling revenue and all big-time professional and collegiate athletic organizations further drive this engine.

Although gambling has long been a staple of the golf game, whether at a country club or a local municipal course, it was usually nothing found on the big screens at a Vegas sports book. Now, with so many legal online gambling sites, you can place a bet on whether a nine iron is going to find the green or the lake from the comfort of your own living room. I was watching a recent PGA event, and a gambling site ran a commercial proudly hailing their product whereby a gambler could wager on every swing. 

I did some quick math with the help of the calculator on my phone. On that Sunday, there were 54 golfers left. If, for argument’s sake, the average score that day was 70, that means there were 3,780 swings of a golf club — and that is 3,780 different bets.

When online gambling was illegal, and gambling was confined to brick-and-mortar locations, it took work. Laws did not eliminate illegal gambling any more than the fifth commandment did away with murder. But when we remove all the guardrails from something like gambling — which has the power to addict individuals, divide families, and wreak destruction — we need to ask ourselves, is it really a good thing that someone can make more than 3,000 bets on a single golf tournament?

This new world of legal gambling literally at our fingertips is technologically driven, and no demographic is more dependent and influenced by technology than young people. According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, “children and teens are at higher risk than adults for developing a gambling problem. Additionally, individuals who start gambling at a young age are also more likely to develop a gambling addiction later in life.”

Turning into a Luddite sans all modern-day technological devices, or selling all we have and living in a cave in the Mojave Desert are not practical solutions. But the practical problem remains, as it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid the near occasion of sin when the potential for sin so readily infiltrates our lives. One is not safe in their own home, on their own couch,  watching a professional golf tournament, without being inundated with the promise of getting rich quick via the industrial gambling complex.

In the Acts of the Apostles we read, “Be sober and vigilant. Your opponent the devil is prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1Peter 5:8). 

I’m not sure if St. Peter was thinking of the online gambling matrix or the questionable wisdom of drawing to an inside straight, but the key word is “vigilance.” That is what we all need to maintain when the near occasion comes knocking on our door, or chiming in through a gambling app.