A year ago, I moved from Nevada from California, and the first time I walked into a grocery store, I was taken aback. Slot machines at a supermarket? I come in to grab milk and yogurt, and I could leave play a couple spins on the way out. It felt jarring.

Now that I’ve lived here a while, I’m less shocked by slot machines in gas stations and grocery stores, but it still feels strange, the ease of access to gambling woven into everyday life. But then I started wondering: what’s the difference between a slot machine in a supermarket and platforms like Kalshi or Polymarket that I can access instantly on my smartphone?

When the United States Supreme Court overturned the federal ban on sports betting, I don’t think anyone imagined we’d arrive here. Today, you can bet on almost anything, sports, politics, cultural moments. What will a guest talk about on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert? Who will win tonight’s NBA game? You can even predict the outcome of our current wars in Venezuela and Iran. Everything becomes a market. Everything becomes a wager.

Last month, I was in Minnesota. I’m part of a fantasy league for Survivor, and I caught myself thinking about how easy it would be to sway the group if I had information others didn’t. Even without money at stake, the temptation was there, to leverage knowledge, to influence outcomes, to gain an edge on who would be voted out.

That’s what struck me most: gambling isn’t just about money anymore. It’s about access, information, and influence. It seeps into how we think, how we relate, how we trust one another.

In his recent piece Sucker: My Year a Life in Gambling, McKay Coppins explores not just the systems of gambling, but the culture surrounding it, the normalization, the quiet pull, the ways it reshapes our habits and even our moral boundaries.

And maybe that’s what feels most unsettling. It’s not just that gambling is everywhere, it’s that it’s becoming invisible. Ordinary. Expected.

So the question isn’t just where we gamble anymore. It’s how gambling is shaping us.

Because the danger today isn’t just losing money. It’s:

• Trust being replaced by strategy
• Community being replaced by competition
• Relationships being filtered through advantage

When everything becomes a wager, people can start to become… means to an outcome. And that cuts directly against the Gospel.

Because in Christ, people are not bets to be leveraged. They are neighbors to be loved.

Here is a resource from ELCA Witness and Society for congregations to use regarding gambling.