Gallup Poll Finds Half Of Americans Gamble, But Rate Is Falling
Key Takeaways:
- Gambling participation in the US has dropped sharply, though variations in phone vs. web responses suggest some Americans are hesitant to verbally admit to gambling.
- The steepest declines came from lottery tickets, in-person casino gambling, and office pools.
- Real-money online gambling is the only form that hasn't declined over time.
About half of American adults say they gamble in some form, but confirmed participation has declined in almost every category since 2016, according to a new Gallup poll released this week. The finding combines a telephone survey and an online poll of Gallup Panel members, both conducted in June and July, with a margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
Americans' Reports of Gambling Activity: 2026 vs. 2026 Data
The poll asked Americans to say whether or not they have done any of the following things in the past 12 months:
| Activity | 2016 (%) | 2026 (%) | Change (pct. pts.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bought a state lottery ticket | 49 | 31 | -18 |
| Gambled in person at a casino | 26 | 14 | -12 |
| Participated in an office pool on the World Series, Super Bowl, etc. | 15 | 7 | -8 |
| Bet on a professional sports event | 10 | 7 | -3 |
| Played a video poker machine | 9 | 5 | -4 |
| Bet on a college sports event | 5 | 4 | -1 |
| Gambled for money on the internet | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| Played fantasy sports games for money | n/a | 4 | n/a |
| Played bingo for money | 6 | 3 | -3 |
| Bet on a horse race | 6 | 2 | -4 |
| Bet on a boxing match | 3 | 2 | -1 |
| Placed a bet on a future non-athletic event in an online prediction market | n/a | 2 | n/a |
| Done any other kind of gambling | 9 | 4 | -5 |
Source: Gallup
Lottery And Casino Visits Post The Steepest Declines
The phone survey found that 45% of respondents had gambled in some form over the prior 12 months, down from 64% in 2016, while the companion web survey put participation in 2026 at 53%, eight points higher.
The steepest drops came in the most established gambling methods: in-person casino visits fell by 12 percentage points, and lottery ticket purchases fell by 18 percentage points.
Even so, buying a state lottery ticket and gambling in person at a casino remained the two most common activities, cited by 31% and 14% of phone respondents and 38% and 19% of web respondents.
Internet Gambling Is The Only Category That Grew
Only 7% of phone respondents said they had bet on a professional sports event through any channel, down from 10% previously, and just 4% said they gambled online for money. That online figure was the sole category to rise since 2016, up a single percentage point, at a time when legal online options were far more scarce, two years before the Supreme Court repealed the federal ban known as PASPA.
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Are Fewer People Gambling, Or Fewer Admitting It?
Gallup noted that online poll respondents gave higher affirmative answers across the board than phone respondents, suggesting people may be more willing to disclose gambling activity when typing a response than when speaking to a live interviewer.
The pollster stopped short of a firm conclusion on whether actual participation has dropped or whether reporting habits have simply shifted.
A Decade Of Change In How Gambling Looks
Gallup interviewed 2,201 adults by phone and 2,043 Gallup Panel members online, weighting both samples for demographic factors, political identification, and phone usage.
The company pointed to a decade of change in both the gambling landscape and its mainstream visibility as important context for the numbers:
- Sports betting advertising is now frequent and prominent across broadcast and streaming media.
- Betting scandals in professional and college sports have become more regularly reported.
- State and federal lawmakers alike are raising louder concerns about addiction harms than they were when Gallup last asked these questions in 2016.
Numbers Land Amid Heavier Scrutiny
The survey's release comes at a pointed moment for the industry, as prediction markets and sweepstakes operators are increasingly put under the microscope by regulators.
Whether declining self-reported participation reflects genuine cooling in demand, tighter household budgets, or simply a public more wary of admitting to gambling amid all the negative headlines, is a question Gallup says it cannot yet answer with confidence from a single survey wave.
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