How pastors would respond if their state legalizes sports gambling
Percent of U.S. Protestant pastors, 2019 (in percent)
Key finding
Highest: Offer counseling for debt or addiction (88%). Lowest: Use sermons to discourage participation (33%).
- Offer counseling for debt or addiction: 88%
- Use private conversations to discourage participation: 65%
- Offer support groups for gambling addiction: 60%
Source: Lifeway Research, Most Pastors See Sports Gambling as Immoral, Oppose Its Legalization · Phone survey of 1,000 Protestant pastors. Article published 2019-03-19.
See all 5 categories, the full chart and more
Free account: full chart, CSV and PNG downloads, ready-to-paste citation, branded share image, and a discussion question for your team.
Questions about this statistic
What does this statistic show?
Highest: Offer counseling for debt or addiction (88%). Lowest: Use sermons to discourage participation (33%). Offer counseling for debt or addiction: 88%. Use private conversations to discourage participation: 65%. Offer support groups for gambling addiction: 60%.
Who published this data?
Lifeway Research, 2019. Source: Lifeway Research, Most Pastors See Sports Gambling as Immoral, Oppose Its Legalization (https://research.lifeway.com/2019/03/19/most-pastors-see-sports-gambling-as-immoral-oppose-its-legalization/).
Where can I get the full data and a citation?
Create a free Leader Insights account to open the full chart, download CSV or PNG, copy a citation and save the statistic to your own library.
More Pastors & Staff statistics
- Black Protestant clergy who support women's leadership in the Black church Public Religion Research Institute, 2026
- Decline in churches insuring their senior pastor Leader Insights, 2026
- Drop in pastors considering quitting since the 2022 peak Leader Insights, 2026
- Americans rating clergy honesty and ethics as high Lifeway Research, 2020
- Americans who see a pastor as a trustworthy source of wisdom Barna Group, 2020
- Areas pastors wish they had been better prepared for Barna Group, 2020
About this data
Leader Insights collects statistics about U.S. churches from published research by organizations such as Lifeway Research, Barna Group, Springtide, the American Bible Society and PRRI. Every number is checked against the wording of the original source before it is published, and each statistic links back to the study it came from. Figures are reproduced from the publishers named above; see the source for full methodology.