Scripture specifically approves of at least three ways to obtain goods or money.  Working to earn money,² obtaining goods through exchange or barter,³ and receiving lifetime gifts or an inheritance at death⁴ are all expressly acceptable ways to increase your wealth or possessions. 

Conversely the Scriptures condemn obtaining anything by cheating, stealing or lying, and further condemns the desire of obtaining what belongs to others.⁵

Beyond the Scriptural issues, Anderson and others reject gambling as bad social and governmental policy as well. Societal ills such as gambling addictions, excessive debt, neglected families are cited as prime examples of why, in addition to Biblical direction, gambling should be considered immoral.

Ronald A. Reno, writing for Focus on the Family, considers gambling to be an abdication of Biblical instructions to love your neighbor and take care of the poor. Gambling cannot exist without winners and losers and cultivates a desire to place yourself first at the expense of your neighbors. Scriptures teach us to take care of the poor rather than to support activities such as gambling which in order to succeed must, on average, make all participants poorer in the long run.  Reno goes on to say that gambling creates and encourages vices such as greed and covetousness going to far as to call it "consensual theft."⁶

Bennett grew up in a different environment and says that he's gambled all of his life even enjoying church bingo when growing up. This philosophy contends that gambling might be permissible if four conditions are met:

·         What is staked must belong to the gambler and must be at his free disposal. It is wrong, therefore, for the lawyer to stake the money of his client, or for anyone to gamble with what is necessary for the maintenance of his wife and children.