Kansas City Chiefs kicker Harrison Butker offered sharp criticism of the now-rampant sports betting culture in America during an interview with EWTN and Fox News host Raymond Arroyo on his Arroyo Grande podcast this week.
During their conversation Thursday, Arroyo noted the ubiquity of sports betting and its impact on young men. “They are now advertising this in the middle of your games,” he said. “As a man of faith … is this a good thing?”
Butker, who is Catholic and attends the Traditional Latin Mass, responded in the negative.
“I’m not a fan of it at all. I mean, I felt like it used to be looked down ten years ago and now it’s commonplace and everyone’s taking part in it,” he said. “I think it’s done a lot of harm to the game … a lot of people’s lived are getting ruined because of it.”
Butker’s remarks are refreshing in that they oppose the spirit of the modern world, though they are nothing new for the man who is also one of the NFL’s best kickers.
The Dispatch
In 2024, Butker delivered a graduation speech at Benedictine College in Kansas where he encouraged female graduates to be homemakers while denouncing abortion rights, Pride Month, COVID-19 lockdowns and “the tyranny of diversity, equity and inclusion.” For his truth-telling efforts, the mainstream media attempted to cancel him.
Perhaps not as widely known is that Butker was an executive producer for the documentary film trilogy Mass of the Ages. He is also an altar server at Latin Mass indult communities.
Butker and Arroyo’s comments are gambling are in alignment with Catholic moral theology, which instructs laity to use their resources for the glory of God and to ensure basic expenses and needs are provided for first before engaging in games of chance. As Arroyo noted in the interview, however, advertising for gambling websites and apps are so commonplace that their seems to be a concerted effort to encourage young men into indulging in gambling to the point of squandering thousands of dollars, a development which coincides with the larger materialistic culture in America which has sprung up around gambling.
Dominican moral theologians Fathers John Ambrose McHugh (1880–1950) and Charles Jerome Callan (1877–1962), famous for their manual based on the principles of Saint Thomas, have warned about gambling:
Although not sinful in itself, gambling is so open to serious abuse that it has been strictly regulated by civil laws which bind in conscience. (no. 2137)
Butker and Arroyo discussed an array of other topics as well, including Gen Z Catholics, married life, why he attends the Latin Mass, and related issues. Click here to watch.
