4 minSociety
Mormon Leader Calls Gambling a Moral Wrong as Prediction Markets Face Scrutiny in Utah
D. Todd Christofferson, a top leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, warned that the rise of online prediction markets and sports betting is fostering greed, especially among young people, and said the church considers such wagers morally wrong.
A top leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints warned that the rapid growth of online prediction markets and sports betting is fueling greed and harming young people, declaring that gambling is morally wrong and produces nothing of value. D. Todd Christofferson, one of the three senior leaders of the faith widely known as the Mormon church, made the remarks at the church’s twice-annual general conference.
Christofferson said rampant betting among teenagers and young adults is stealing time from their studies and relationships, as smartphones make gambling accessible almost anywhere. «For us as Latter-day Saints, overarching all other concerns is the fact that gambling is morally wrong. Gambling is built on the desire to obtain something for nothing,» he said. He also took aim at prediction markets, which allow wagers on events ranging from weather to geopolitics. «Or even, if you can imagine, the timing of the Second Coming,» Christofferson said. «Where do you go to collect on that bet?»
The church’s stance puts it at odds with the administration of President Donald Trump, which has argued that platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket do not constitute gambling and therefore should not be subject to restrictions in states like Utah, where the church is headquartered. Utah has been at the center of a legal fight over whether prediction markets are a financial product or a form of gambling. A federal judge ruled in August that Utah officials can enforce the state’s strict anti-gambling laws on prediction markets. Legislation enacted this year further tightened Utah’s gambling statutes and amended language so that they would almost certainly apply to prediction markets.
Opposition to gambling is common among religious organizations. The United Methodist Church calls it «a menace to society.» The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, has condemned gambling repeatedly and in 2025 declared sports gambling inconsistent with biblical principle. Gambling is forbidden in Islam and considered a vice among Hindus. In the Catholic Church, gambling is not itself a sin but is viewed as potentially problematic.
For more than a century, Utah kept gambling almost entirely out of the state. There are no casinos, no lotteries and no racetracks that allow bets. The prohibition is rooted in the ideals of Latter-day Saints who view gambling as a path to selfishness and addiction. «The rise of predictive markets, and the legalization of sports gambling, this is just really taking off all across the country,» said Matthew Bowman, a professor of religion and history at Claremont Graduate University in California. «And a lot of institutions — religious, state and otherwise — are grappling with this problem.»
Saturday’s speech comes as the church has been wading into political issues under President Dallin Oaks, a former Utah Supreme Court justice who became the faith’s top leader last October. Church leaders this year have opposed state ballot measures that would establish rights to abortion in Idaho and Nevada. Yet the institution’s approach to political issues — using public statements and behind-the-scenes lobbying to convey its message — has become more calculated in recent years, Bowman said. The shift followed public blowback to the church’s stance against California’s Proposition 8, a 2008 ballot measure that sought to ban gay marriage. In that case, Bowman said, church leaders encouraged members to get directly involved.
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