Mormon Leader Calls Prediction Markets Gambling, Setting Up Clash With Trump Administration

A top leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints warned that the rapid expansion of online prediction markets and sports betting is fostering greed and harming young people, drawing a sharp line between the faith and the Trump administration over whether such platforms constitute gambling.

D. Todd Christofferson, one of the three senior leaders of the church widely known as the Mormon church, said gambling is morally wrong and produces nothing of value. Speaking at the faith's twice-annual general conference, he singled out prediction markets that allow wagers on everything from weather to geopolitical events.

«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,» Christofferson said. He added that rampant betting among teenagers and young adults is robbing time from their studies and relationships as smartphones make gambling possible anywhere.

Christofferson also took aim at the breadth of prediction markets, which allow wagers on topics as varied as whether it will rain in Los Angeles or whether the United States will go to war. «Or even, if you can imagine, the timing of the Second Coming,» he said. «Where do you go to collect on that bet?»

The declaration that prediction markets are gambling puts the conservative church at odds with President Donald Trump. His administration has argued that platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket do not constitute gambling and therefore should not be subjected to restrictions in states such as Utah, where the church is based.

Utah has been at the forefront of the legal dispute over who regulates the markets and whether they should be considered finance or 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 made Utah's gambling laws stricter and amended some language so that they would almost certainly apply to prediction markets.

Opposition to gambling is common among religious organizations. The United Methodist Church refers to it as «a menace to society.» The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Protestant denomination in America, has condemned gambling several times 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 in itself a sin but is considered 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 members of the Latter-day Saints church 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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Delaney Sawyer

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Delaney Sawyer covers public affairs, politics, business, culture and daily news for Core Memo. The role focuses on verification, context, and clear explanations for readers.

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