A theology of sports betting

On June 22, 2021, the Senate of Canada approved Bill C-218, making it legal for Canadians (19+) to participate in mobile sports betting. If you are uninterested in sports, this probably has little effect on you except for the frequent advertisements and commercials from FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, PointsBet and many more. But it’s worth paying attention. Behind all these ubiquitous commercials is a growing public health crisis.

The legislative change that happened three years ago made it possible for Canadians to legally bet on the outcome of a single professional sporting event and even on actions that players would take within that game. Before 2021, when Canadians could only place bets on parlays (the outcome of two or more sporting events), only about seven percent of Canadians bet on sports at least once per year. Now, that rate has almost tripled to 20 percent. A survey by market research group TGM found that half of those who gambled on sports in Canada in 2022 did so at least once a month. What concerns me is that most sports gambling addicts are within my demographic (young male college students), and the results of addiction usually involve devastating financial losses and fractured relationships. A piece published by The Hill is calling it the next opioid crisis.

The fear of sports betting getting out of hand adds justification to the common Christian belief that the practice is wrong, immoral and/or sinful. I grew up in a conservative Reformed family, church and elementary school, so I was well aware of this argument. When I was about 12, I remember playing Poker with my brothers and I heard my grandmother say from another room, “It better not be with real money!” I can fully understand why my grandmother (and others) strongly dislike any form of gambling, but in this article, I will make the case that sports betting, in particular, should not be regarded as sinful by those in the Reformed tradition, as long as it meets certain conditions.

I am not a theologian or an ethicist by training, so I cannot write about this issue as well as others. I am just an avid basketball fan who frequently thinks about theology. In attempting to form an ethical perspective on sports betting, I find John Calvin (1509-1564) to be the most helpful. The Swiss theologian was well-educated in civil law and he devoted his work to economics more than any other father of Reformed theology.

It should be noted that Calvin did implement a ban on gambling while he was a legislator in Geneva, so perhaps a Calvinist perspective requires us to abstain from sports betting. Yet this does not seem to be a serious objection because he also banned dancing, swearing and theater plays. The question at hand, then, is, “what would Calvin say about sports betting if he were alive in 21st-century Canada and not 16th-century Geneva?”

Risky business

A Calvinist perspective on sports betting, I think, starts with his Letters of Advice, one of which was addressed to a friend who asked him about his thoughts on usury. Usury is when a loan is charged with such high interest that it only benefits the lender and not the buyer. In modern times, it goes by the name of loan-sharking or payday lending. Obviously, usury and sports gambling are not in the same ballpark, but the arguments made in the letter are still relevant because both activities are frowned-upon investments often associated with greedy behaviour. Risky business, in other words. Moreover, this letter reveals a particular methodology of using biblical principles to form the basis for a just economic vision. For Calvin, these principles include prudence, moderation, equity, charity and maintenance of the common good.

Calvin states that he is unwilling to condemn usury because it is not prohibited by biblical law and chasing usurers out of the country would be unrealistic. The same can be said about sports betting, as the Bible does not command against it and it will likely continue even if it is criminalized. So, if it is here to stay, Calvin writes, “we ought at least to use [usury] for the common good.”

According to Calvin, the problem with usury is that it “always travels with two inseparable companions: tyrannical cruelty and the art of deception.” That means we need to identify what vices tend to travel alongside sports betting. I think it is clear these sins include greed and foolishness, but they can be avoided as long as we challenge each other and ask, “what is the intention with these gambles?” Though it may be a trivial feature of the common good, the answer should always be to pursue the fun and competitive spirit that travels alongside sports betting; it should never be to make a profit.

As it is written in Proverbs 13:11, “wealth gained hastily will dwindle.” Therefore, when making bets, a second question to ask is, “has enough research been done to make this a reasonable wager and not a spontaneous one?” Personally, my way of adopting Calvinistic prudence and moderation to sports betting is that I never bet in a sport I know very little about and I never bet beyond “pocket change,” so my wagers usually do not surpass two dollars. Prudence and moderation restrain us to make smart, low-stake gambles. Also, since Calvin endorsed the principles of equity and charity, he would also be concerned if we are giving more money to sports betting apps than to the church.

Finally, to be a good Calvinist is to be concerned about idols and how to get rid of them. As Calvin writes in The Divine Institutes, “the human heart is a perpetual idol factory.” The late Calvinist preacher Tim Keller defines an idol in Counterfeit Gods as “anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God.” Idols are commonly mistaken to be bad things, but as Keller writes, “anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things of life.” Idols are good things (sex, money, power, health, food, comfort, etc.) that are twisted by the human heart to distract us from worshiping God. Idols are not meant to be broken; they are meant to be untwisted. After all, even the evil “ships of Tarshish” have room in Jesus’s perfect kingdom (Isa. 60:9). They will continue to sail but with a new, untwisted, perfect purpose. By this logic, perhaps casinos will be up and running in the new earth too!

In the same way that John Calvin did not condemn usury unless it hastily and foolishly pursued profit, showed apathy towards the needy, and twisted money into an idol, I argue that we can apply the same standards to the ethics of sports betting. Solving the crisis of gambling addiction is not easy, but there are organizations to reach out to if you need help (Responsible Gambling Council; Canada Safety Council). At the political level, the faith-based Canadian think tank Cardus has advocated for the federal government to redirect gaming profits to boost treatment for gambling addiction and fund poverty reduction. Perhaps, if Calvin were alive today, he could be persuaded by this solution, given that he was a firm believer in moderation, equity, charity and the common good.