The NFL is in full swing, the World Series is underway, and two NBA men and a handful of Mafia dons just got arrested for illegal game fixing.
The arrests of Coach Chauncey Billups, player Terry Rozier, and former assistant Damon Jones is a wild story. All three were tied to a supposed Mafia-linked plot and allegedly got pulled into two scams: rigged high-stakes poker games using Bond-level tech, and insider bets on players faking injuries to lose a prop bet.
Millions were involved, not out of need, but pure greed and the rush of pulling it off.
This news hits hard amid America’s big-money sports world. We like to think that success with big salaries, fan love, and nice families protects people from basic flaws. Only the desperate or lost would give in to addiction and greed.
But these men are not unique. And we need to talk about men and gambling addiction.
Sobering Data on Men and Gambling
The statistics about men and gambling are more than alarming. In the past 15 years, gambling has become an economic, political, and cultural phenomenon that has been wholly embraced by corporate America. Legalized sports betting has exploded, and its advertising is now everywhere: ESPN, DraftKings, and so on. This normalization has produced a predictable, and sobering, human toll.
Especially among young men. Up to 48% of men age 18-49 likely have an online gambling profile.
And that’s just casual usage, and that usage may be largely fine. But the statistics on problem gambling are particularly concerning. A high number of young men score high enough on clinical indexes to indicate a genuine problem. For instance, 10% of men aged 18–30 show signs of a problem gambling issue.
The numbers are not going down and will only get worse over time. We are fast approaching a time when a generation of men complain less of alcohol or drug addiction and more of the high cost of their gambling failures.
The Gods of Chance and Fortune
The ancient world, much like our own, harbored a profound human longing for control over an unpredictable fate. This desire manifested itself in the worship of gods who, it was believed, could be appeased or manipulated to grant good fortune.
In the time of the prophet Isaiah, the people of Israel were drawn into the orbit of this spiritual compromise, honoring a pair of pagan gods: Gad, the deity of Fortune or Luck, and Meni, the deity of Destiny or Fate.
In Isaiah 65:11, to “prepare a table for That Troop and a drink offering unto That Number” is method of sacramental gambling to appease the pagan gods. A roll of the dice, and you would drink to the number assigned by the dice.
What the demons offered was a quick win and the guaranteed outcome. A seductive shortcut around the hard-won blessings of fidelity and honest labor.
This ancient drama finds a startlingly clear echo in the modern epidemic of online gambling. When a man downloads a sports betting app today, he is, in a profound spiritual sense, preparing a table for Gad and Meni once more. He is actively choosing to place his faith in “luck” or “chance” rather than the steady, patient provision of the Creator.
The pursuit of the unearned jackpot is simply the contemporary version of the idolatrous feast.
But is Gambling Always a Sin?
The Bible, of course, does not include an explicit verse saying, “Thou shalt not gamble”. Instead, it speaks profoundly against the root vices that drive the activity from a little fun to a serious problem: greed, covetousness, a failure of stewardship, and a poor work ethic.
Each of these vices rests in the heart of every man. It’s just gambling holds a unique power to inflame these vices into full-blown problems.
But the book of Proverbs warns that “whoever hastens to be rich will not go unpunished” while contrasting it with the virtue of gathering “money little by little makes it grow” (Proverbs 28:20; 13:11). The faithful life is a life of planting, tending, and harvesting. It is a slow, patient process, not a sudden, feverish strike for an unearned fortune.
The message is eternal: Trust in God, not in chance. The pursuit of a lucky break is a spiritual detour that ultimately leads a man to abandon his reliance on God’s wisdom and provision.
So, sure, have a little fun betting on Fantasy leagues or a night of cards with the boys. But anything else and you are probably playing with fire and the gods of fate.
