During Palm Sunday and Good Friday church services, congregations will be reminded of the story of the lots that were cast for the garments of Jesus after his death, as the prophets and scriptures foretold.

Gambling has deep religious roots, not just in Christianity but in all of the world’s religions. Often, gambling is connected to a deep spiritual meaning.

Life, Death, and Rebirth

Dice games, in particular, have been equated with the life cycle. Dice from ancient times were often made from bones. Also dice games have either been found or depicted in ancient tombs and burial grounds. Ancient Egyptians, for example, had tomb paintings showing the deceased playing a dice game called jackal and hounds. Usually the purpose of these depictions or gaming artifacts is so the deceased can continue their games in the afterlife.

Game boards and fields were considered sacred altars in ancient times. They were shared by gamblers, magicians, and priests alike. Something as simple as a chessboard or hopscotch outline was considered a temple. Mythologies in Icelandic, Native American, and Hindu cultures believed the gods would destroy the world and recreate it as a game board.

If the game boards were temples, then it followed that the game pieces themselves were used to communicate with the gods. Dice or other gambling devices were used to seek advice from the gods. The way the pieces landed determined the answer, answers which were never disputed. Even soldiers took these results as a direct response from their gods, and the spoils of war were divided without further bloodshed.

Biblical Gambling

The Book of the Prophet Isaiah is full of gambling references. It was here where the first mention of gambling for the Jesus’ clothes was written. Isaiah also mentions how stone dice were cast to determine the allotment of land to be passed through the generations in a family.

In other Biblical references, dice and other game pieces were used as a method for determining God’s will. The Book of Exodus suggests that God told Moses that his brother Aaron was to carry stones with the symbols of the twelve tribes of Israel, which were to be used whenever Aaron was in a holy place.

The irony is that so many religions today consider gambling as an evil when in reality, gambling sits at the very center of most religious beliefs.

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