Is There a Difference between Investing and Gambling? A Christian Perspective

Abstract

To an economist, investment represents a mutually beneficial transfer of capital that fuels the engine of economic growth and leads to improved standards of living. A gamble tends to be an entertaining, zero-sum, short-term bet. The increasing popularity of a gambling culture along with increasing short-term speculation with derivative financial instruments has blurred the line between investing and gambling. This paper considers a biblical perspective on investment and gambling and seeks to delineate the two.