What Does the Bible Say About Gambling? Is Gambling a Sin?
1) Direct Answer
Yes. Gambling is sin. The Bible condemns the spirit that drives it—covetousness, the love of money, trusting chance instead of trusting God, and taking gain that comes at another’s loss.
2) Scriptural Explanation
- Covetousness: “Thou shalt not covet” (Exodus 20:17). Jesus said, “Beware of covetousness” (Luke 12:15). Gambling feeds that desire to have what God did not give.
- Love of money: “They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare... For the love of money is the root of all evil” (1 Timothy 6:9-10). Gambling is built on that very love.
- Vanity and quick gain: “Wealth gotten by vanity shall be diminished” (Proverbs 13:11). “A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent… He that hasteth to be rich hath an evil eye” (Proverbs 28:20,22).
- Trust and contentment: “Be content with such things as ye have” (Hebrews 13:5). “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). Gambling looks to chance, not to the Lord’s provision.
- Honest work vs. chance: “In all labour there is profit” (Proverbs 14:23). “If any would not work, neither should he eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). “Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour… that he may have to give” (Ephesians 4:28). God blesses honest labor, not schemes.
- Stewardship and masters: “No man can serve two masters… Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Luke 16:10-13). Gambling serves mammon. We are stewards, and “it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2).
- Love for neighbor: “Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth [good]” (1 Corinthians 10:24). Gambling wins by another’s loss; love doesn’t do that (Romans 13:10).
- Bondage: “I will not be brought under the power of any” (1 Corinthians 6:12). Gambling enslaves many; the Bible forbids such bondage.
Now notice, some point to “casting lots” in Scripture. The Bible shows lots used to discern God’s will (Proverbs 16:33; Acts 1:26), not to satisfy greed, not to take money from a neighbor, and not as entertainment. Soldiers casting lots for Jesus’ garment only shows the cruelty of men, not God’s approval (John 19:24).
3) Simple Clarifying Logic
- Gambling seeks gain without work; Scripture teaches gain by faithful labor.
- Gambling springs from covetousness and the love of money; Scripture condemns both.
- Gambling depends on chance; faith rests in God’s provision and contentment.
- Gambling profits one at the harm of another; love does no harm to a neighbor.
- Gambling often brings bondage; the believer must not be ruled by any such power.
4) Reinforcing Statement
Turn from it. Confess it to God, cut it off, make things right where you can, and trust the Lord to supply your needs. The Bible’s way is faith, contentment, honest work, and stewardship unto God.
Ask a Follow-up Question
What did the Laodicean Church Age (our age) Angel (- messenger) Say about this?
Ranked passages from the local William Branham sermon and Church Age Book database. Relevance is relative, not a statement of doctrinal certainty.
God hath a Provided Way
56-0108 §10
...ed way. In the character of Abraham, this morning speaking, or taking him as a basic thought, he, to my opinion, is one of the most outstanding of all the characters of the Bible, and one of my favorite characters to bring to the people for an example. Now in Hebrews the 11th chapter ... or, 12th chapter, the 1st verse, it said: ...seeing we ... are compassed about with such a great ... cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every sin and the ... weight, and the sin that so easily beset us... Now, we realize that sin...
To see Jesus
54-0718E §41
Drinking, smoking, gambling, doing evil things: that isn't sin; that's the attributes of unbelief. You do that because you're an unbeliever. If you was a believer, you would not do those things. It bears the fruits of joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, patience, holiness. That's the fruits of the Spirit. But the fruits of the evil spirit is doubt. "He that believeth not is condemned already." Then if the truth comes to you in such a way that you have a knowledge of it, and then refuse to receive it, there rema...
Balm in Gilead
59-1124 §14
I would wonder today, when I think of this mad stricken, pleasure crazed nation that we're in. Why do we turn to drinking, and gambling, and smoking, and carrying on the way we do to find pleasure? Is it because there is no pleasure in the house of God? Is it because there's no joy in serving the Lord, that we have to hush that precious desire in our heart with things of the world? I wonder what will happen when God requires us at the day of judgment and asks us, "Why did we go to such things as that for pleasure?"...
Expectations and what Love is
54-0228A §53
...in tongues. All of those things I believe is the truth. But, brother, that's not what you're after. See, you're after the accepting of Christ." Accepting of Christ isn't raising up your hands, or these things, it's accepting a person into the heart, and then the attributes comes out. First, get things first: Christ in the heart and it will bear record. I said, "Like smoking, drinking, gambling, committing adultery, those things are not sin." Then I said that one night and a good old Methodist mother raised up. I sa...
Balm in Gilead
59-0614 §11
...go after the things of the world to satisfy that thirst that's in him, when God created that thirst for him to thirst after God. Why would he satisfy it with drinking, and gambling, and carousing, when there is peace, and joy, and long-suffering, and goodness, and mercy in God? Why would a man falsely fill himself full of poison liquors, to make him get out and be carefree, only to know that he's damned his soul and diseased his body? There is a Spirit of the living God that can give him eternal peace and satisfac...