The gambling business from the point of view of Catholic moral and social teachings

Abstract

Is the gambling business compatible with Christianity? Catholicism, the largest Christian denomination, does not provide a clear answer to this question, which has also been largely dismissed by scholars from gambling studies and religious studies alike. This article fills this gap through an assessment of the gambling business in light of Catholic moral and social teachings. It offers two main findings. First, it challenges the widespread notion of the neutrality of the Catechism towards gambling and argues that contemporary commercial gambling is in contravention of core Catholic moral teachings. Second, it offers a novel assessment of the legitimacy of the gambling enterprise through the application of the concept of ‘social usefulness’. It proposes that any positive social outcomes resulting from gambling, regardless of their entity, do not render the gambling enterprise socially useful and legitimate – from a Catholic social-teaching perspective – since gambling also brings about significant gross social costs. This article contributes to a better understanding of the place of gambling within Catholicism, and hence within Christianity more broadly. Likewise, it offers suggestions on how the Catholic Church could embrace a more accurate assessment of the gambling enterprise that better reflects Catholic social doctrine so as to mitigate problem gambling, which is particularly salient among Catholics.