It was a roundabout discovery. I was looking for the current crop of thrift stores on Maui, where we’re flying to spend a couple of days with friends from Canada who are there escaping winter. I was checking on the St. Anthony’s Church thrift shop, which we try to check every time we’re on Maui. This time, I discovered a notice indicating the store has reportedly closed. Frown.

So I checked a recent church bulletin available on the St. Anthony website looking for info. I didn’t find anything about the thrift shop, but I found an interesting presentation of the Catholic view on sports gambling. Given how divisive the issue has been in Hawaii, I was interested to see that the Catholic Church doesn’t oppose legalized sports gambling, at least according to this column.

Here are some highlights.

The Church does not consider gambling to be intrinsically immoral. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says, in part: “Games of chance (card games, etc.) or wagers are not in themselves contrary to justice. They become morally unacceptable when they deprive someone of what is necessary to provide for his needs and those of others” (No. 2413). This means that it is possible for sports wagering to be consistent with the good, but it is not necessarily so in every situation. The Catechism cautions, “The passion for gambling risks becoming an enslavement.”
Strictly as entertainment, it would be difficult to distinguish casual gambling (such as on the big game, series or horse race) from other kinds of entertainment spending, such as ball games, a round of golf, amusement parks or similar innocent pastimes. It is permissible to spend disposable income on these amusements, consistent with principles of justice and charity. Indeed, such leisurely pursuits are an important aspect of a full life. The neurons that are fired by the thrill of the hole-in-one or the successful wager on the World Series do not seem to be morally distinguishable.

The church recognizes there is an issue with addiction. However, this does not provide grounds for opposing gambling.

This entire discussion must be bracketed by the problem of addiction. Gambling, like other stimulants, releases endorphins that give the risk-taker a feeling of exhilaration. For the vast majority of people, this is controllable. For those whom it is not, it is probably sinful to indulge at all. The analogy to drug or alcohol addiction is close, if not practically exact. It is not sinful, per se, to consume alcohol. But for the person who knows he is an alcoholic, it probably is. Put another way, for the non-addict, both imbibing and betting can be ordered toward the good in certain circumstances; for the addict, neither ever can.

This article appeared in the February 19, 2023 bulletin. After clicking the link, you have to scroll down a bit to find it.