Mormon leader decries prediction markets and sports betting as fostering greed
A leader of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints criticized the rapid growth of online prediction markets and sports betting, saying the trend fosters greed. Matthew Bowman, identified in one report as the speaker, framed the expansion as morally wrong during remarks. Sources do not name specific prediction market platforms or propose policy responses. The remarks came during the LDS General Conference. No further details on the venue or context were available.
Religious condemnation now targets the entire prediction-market category, not just named platforms. Christofferson's prior remarks singled out Kalshi directly; this broader brush strokes every CFTC-registered venue. That collapse of legal distinctions gives state legislators in conservative jurisdictions cover to draft restrictive bills without engaging swaps law.
The faith-leader pressure arrives while Ohio and Tennessee courts have pierced federal preemption and New York pursues Polymarket on gambling-framing theory. Platforms must fight on three fronts: federal rule comments, state court defense, and public opinion. No single win is decisive. The first state to pass a religion-backed restriction becomes the template others copy, adding cultural mandate to legal precedent.
Joins two prior Christofferson interventions in under a day, each escalating from platform-specific naming to category-wide moral condemnation.