Boxed games are like secondary sources, and one needs to be wary of the imported spirit hidden in the prefabricated game. Rather than approach games of chance as a violation of belief in God's providence, or suppose that the element of chance is playing loosely with God's will, we should view hidden cards in bridge and unpredictable dice as simply a handy way to bring the play in reality to the fore. Further, games themselves can be denatured. To cheat at hopscotch or even to play marbles for keeps is to end the playfulness. Gambling is always the murder of a game, because gambling violates the allusive play of the God-created game world and enslaves fun in the straitjacket of mammon.
Lotteries are an illicit turn to games even if they be legal tender.
Video games are mechanized, with a built-in drive for speed and power, which augurs poorly for leisure and harbors an imaginative, consumerized violence that is the antithesis of personal relaxation. The best games may not be those one can become ever more skilled at, sharpening the competitive edge, but those that most generously spread around communal good humor and a refreshing playfulness based on feeling at home in God's world despite the secularized brutalization of all things bright and beautiful. When Christ returns, one could do worse than be found with an orphan visiting a zoo of God's fantastic animals or playing checkers with a lonely widow or widower in a deserted convalescent home, letting them be imaginatively useful and take initiative in joyfully jumping your king. There will be no games in hell, only ennui. Online Christian Resources.