Gallup Poll: Americans Are Gambling Less

Americans are gambling less than they were a decade ago and fewer people in the U.S. believe that gambling is “morally acceptable,” per a Gallup poll published Monday.

In the telephone poll of 2,200 U.S. adults, 45% of respondents said they had participated in some form of gambling in 2026 compared to 64% in 2016.

Of those surveyed in June and July, 31% said they had purchased a lottery ticket, compared to 49% in 2016; 14% said they had gambled at a casino in 2026 compared to 26% in 2016; and 7% said they had played in an office pool in 2026 compared to 15% in 2016.

The reported decline comes at a time when gambling is available and legal in more U.S. states than at any time in history. Sports betting became a states’ rights issue in 2018, and 42 states offer some kind of wagering as compared to one — Nevada — in 2016. In addition, online casinos have grown to become legal in eight states. The number of states with legal lottery play remained about the same — 44 in 2016 and 45 in 2026.

“These reports of individual gambling activity may seem at odds with growth in the gambling industry, generally, as measured by gambling revenue in dollars,” reads the Gallup press release. “However, increased gambling revenue may result from a smaller pool of Americans gambling more frequently or paying higher prices to gamble than in the past.”

Participation in sports betting, video poker, bingo, and horse racing also declined. In addition, the survey revealed that 2% of respondents have “placed a bet on a a future non-athletic event in an online prediction market.”

Just 57% of respondents said they considered gambling “morally acceptable” in 2026, down from 67% a decade earlier.

Lottery, casino participation at all-time low

According to the Gallup press release, the company has been surveying Americans about their interest in bingo since 1950 and on their broader gambling habits since 1989. It reported that interest in state lotteries and in-person gambling is at an all-time low.

Gallup posited that retail gambling may have declined due to the rise in online casinos, but it noted that only 4% of respondents said they gamble online. It also noted that online gambling is the only category that did not see a decline in participation.

In contrast to other recent polls, the Gallup survey found that older Americans (50% of those over 50) gamble more often than younger Americans (41% of those under 50). Women aged 18-49 are the least likely to gamble (35%).

Of note is that the Gallup poll is done by phone, with live interviewers. The company conducted a similar poll online and found different results, including that 53% of online respondents said they had gambled in some fashion in the last year. That number is lower than a decade ago by 11%.

Drilling down, 38% of those surveyed online said they had bought a lottery ticket in the last year compared to 31% in the phone poll, and 19% said they had gambled online compared to 14% who acknowledged doing so in the phone poll.

“The fact that today’s web estimates are still below the estimates from past phone surveys lends some confidence to the finding that fewer Americans now gamble,” Gallup wrote in its press release.