Lottery, casino and sports-pool rates see biggest declines
A Gallup poll released Aug. 17 found that the share of U.S. adults who reported gambling in the past year fell to 45% in 2026, down from 64% in 2016. The decline reached every major demographic subgroup the poll tracked and nearly every category of gambling, with state lottery tickets, in-person casino gambling and office sports pools showing the steepest drops. The share of state lottery ticket purchasers — the most-reported gambling activity in every iteration of the poll — fell to 31%, which Gallup described as the current lowpoint for that category.
State lottery ticket purchases fell from 49% to 31%, a drop of 18 percentage points. In-person casino gambling fell from 26% to 14%, and participation in office sports pools fell from 15% to 7%. Across nearly every other category the poll tracks, reported participation also dropped.
The declines reached every demographic group Gallup examined. Among adults with household incomes of $100,000 or more, 54% reported gambling in the past year, compared with 45% of those earning $50,000 to $99,999 and 40% of those earning less than $50,000. Men reported gambling at higher rates than women, 49% to 40%. Adults 50 and older reported gambling at higher rates than younger adults, 50% to 41%. Women ages 18 to 49 were the least likely to report gambling, at about 35%.
The share of Americans who view gambling as morally acceptable also reached a new low. Gallup said 57% of U.S. adults described gambling as “morally acceptable” in 2026, down from 67% in 2016. Gallup noted that the decline in reported gambling and the decline in moral acceptability coincide over the same decade.
Online gambling was the only one of the 13 gambling categories Gallup tracked that did not register a decline, with 4% of respondents reporting participation in 2026. Gallup said the rise of online gambling may explain part of the drop in in-person casino gambling — people who would have visited a casino in earlier years may now gamble online. Reported in-person casino gambling peaked in 2003, when 30% of respondents said they had done so.
Gallup also reported that online surveys tend to capture higher gambling rates than telephone surveys with live interviewers. A parallel Gallup web survey conducted in June showed 53% of respondents reporting past-year gambling, compared with 45% in the June-July telephone poll, and higher rates across all 13 categories. The telephone poll surveyed 2,201 adults between June 1 and July 19 and had a margin of error of 3 percentage points. State lotteries have been the most-reported gambling activity in every iteration of the poll since 1989, with majorities reporting lottery play for the first decade before rates settled into the high-40% range in later years.