A top leader of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints unloaded a triple-barreled blast at gambling, denouncing online sports betting, casino-type games and the booming “prediction markets.”

“The smartphone has transformed gambling,” President D. Todd Christofferson, second counselor in the faith’s governing First Presidency, said Saturday, “from an occasional activity requiring a trip to a casino, racetrack or lottery kiosk into an activity available continuously, privately, and almost anywhere. This has led to an explosion in gambling.”

Placing such bets is antithetical to Christ’s gospel, Christofferson argued during the opening session of the global church’s fall General Conference.

“For us as Latter-day Saints,” he explained, “overarching all other concerns is the fact that gambling is morally wrong. Gambling is built on the desire to obtain something for nothing. Its structure requires that any gain comes at others’ expense. It’s hard to reconcile that with the commandment to love our neighbor as ourselves.”

Christofferson highlighted an article by Atlantic staff writer McKay Coppins about the dangers of sports betting. The magazine staked Coppins, a Latter-day Saint, to $10,000 to place bets while investigating wagering on games.

‘I lost, basically, all of it’

“I started with $10,000,” Coppins said in a recent “Mormon Land” podcast. “I ended with less than $200. I lost, basically, all of it.”

Coppins expressed a “hope” that church leaders would address the issue.

[Listen to our “Mormon Land” podcast interview with McKay Coppins about sports gambling.]

Christofferson did just that Saturday. He even quoted Coppins’ warning about this multibillion-dollar risky business.

“As a society, we are making an enormously risky bet: that we can reap the rewards of a runaway gambling industry without paying any price,” the journalist wrote. “[We are betting] that the litany of social ills long associated with this vice — addiction and impoverishment, isolation and abuse, cheating and … corrosive idleness — can, this time, be kept in check. [We are betting] that, unlike every civilization that came before us, we can beat the house.”

Coppins posted Saturday on social media about Christofferson’s talk, calling it a “powerful message on the moral, spiritual, and societal perils of gambling.”

“I was grateful to hear him quote my recent story,” the reporter wrote, “but mostly I was just grateful for his wisdom on what I think is an urgent issue.”

Christofferson cited statistics showing that 36% of boys ages 11 to 17 reported gambling last year. By age 17, almost half (49%) had placed wagers.

“Equally troubling,” the apostle said, “is the substantial percentage of 18- to 29-year-old women who now participate in gambling each year, especially mobile sports betting, slots and lotteries.”

Christofferson pointed out that prediction markets — such as Kalshi and Polymarket, though he did not name any specific business — “could be tied to anything: interest rates, elections, sports, wildfires or even, if you can imagine, the timing of the Second Coming.”

“Where do you go to collect that bet?” he joked in reference to the final item, drawing laughter from the Conference Center crowd.

‘Path of the adversary’

Christofferson echoed statements by previous Latter-day Saint leaders, including church President Dallin H. Oaks, about lotteries, parimutuel gambling and other forms of betting.

“What does gambling do to its participants?” Oaks asked in a 1987 speech. “The attitude of taking something from someone else in order to enhance our own position — [which is] the essence of gambling — leads us away from the giving path of Christ and toward the taking path of the adversary.”

Christofferson urged members not to “treat gambling lightly” and shun participating in such activities — even though they may be allowed under the law.

“Our resources are stewardships, and the question is not merely whether a purchase is legal but whether it builds anything — in us, in our families or in those around us,” he said. “In the end, gambling produces nothing of value and enriches only its purveyors.”

Christofferson pleaded with Latter-day Saints “to live life on a higher plane.”