LOL nice find there. He has to justify it as it was a win for the church of his own integrity would be questioned. I am sure this is just one of the thousand other big wins or losses from the elders which make it to the newspapers. Shady how he related everything to God, its like the religions that claim that doing something bad is not really bad because God wanted it. Just use the almighty's name to justify your claim and you are good.
Such is how bad religion is, no wonder people started moving out from religious groups and started calling them out.
Unfortunately, most of the time, religious groups condemn irrelevant acts such as the way people make decisions in their lives. And gambling is certainly among the most criticized by religions, especially christianity.
I think that everyone should do what is best for them, as long as it doesn't affect anyone else's individual freedom.
I don't think Christians condemn gambling because Christians enjoy gambling even though their spiritual director kicks against it. I am a Christian and so are most of my friends but we gamble and have fun with it. The only thing that I will make gambling bad is when it when you want to use it to make profit because you will end up being an addict, but if it is done for fun with discipline and self control, it should not be condemned.
Muslims are the ones that don't want to hear anything about gambling and therefore Islamic countries prohibits gambling. It is a personal thing over there and I don't think that I have any Muslim friend that gambles if I can think back.