New Gallup polling shows that just 45% of US adults reported gambling in the past year, a significant fall from 64% recorded in 2016.
The decline spanned every major demographic group measured in the poll, suggesting the trend is broad rather than concentrated in any single segment of the population.
Lottery ticket purchases saw one of the sharpest drops, with only 31% of respondents saying they bought a state lottery ticket, compared to 49% a decade ago.
Traditional lottery sales fell 5.1% in FY2025, largely because Powerball and Mega Millions produced fewer blockbuster jackpot runs during that period.
Mega Millions raised its ticket price from $2 to $5 in April 2025, while some state lotteries pointed to inflation as an additional pressure on scratch-ticket sales.
In-person casino gambling also declined considerably, with 14% of respondents reporting a casino visit versus 26% in 2016, representing a dramatic halving of participation.
Office pools showed a similar fall, dropping from 15% in 2016 to just 7% today, while sports betting on professional games slipped from 10% to 7% over the same period.
Online gambling for money saw a modest uptick, rising from 3% in 2016 to 4% today, and 2% of respondents reported betting on a future non-athletic event through an online prediction market.
These findings are particularly striking given that legal gambling options have expanded considerably across much of the United States during the same timeframe.
Gallup’s parallel online survey produced a higher participation rate of 53%, compared to the 45% figure generated through telephone polling, an eight-point gap with notable methodological implications.
Gallup noted that respondents may be less willing to disclose gambling activity to a live interviewer, meaning telephone results should be read as a measure of reported behaviour rather than a complete count.
Even the higher 53% online figure remained well below the 64% telephone reading from 2016, which Gallup said still supported the broader conclusion that participation has genuinely declined.
The combined telephone findings were drawn from interviews with 2,201 adults conducted in June and July, carrying a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Gallup, which has been conducting this particular poll for 37 years, used random-digit dialling for both mobile and landline numbers, with interviews also offered in Spanish for primarily Spanish-speaking respondents.
The poll weighted responses for demographic factors, political identification and phone usage, giving the methodology a stronger basis than a standard opt-in consumer survey.
Men were more likely than women to report gambling, at 49% versus 40%, while adults aged 50 or older reported higher participation than younger adults at 50% compared to 41%.
A separate Gallup survey conducted in May found that 57% of Americans considered gambling morally acceptable, itself a drop from 67% recorded in 2016.
A National Council on Problem Gambling survey conducted by Harris Poll in February focused on early exposure, finding that 65% of adults aged 21 or older had gambled before turning 21.
That figure includes lottery tickets, scratch cards and informal money games, and does not distinguish between states where some gambling is legal at 18 versus those using 21 as the minimum age.
A separate study reported by the American Gaming Association last November suggested that interest in gambling in 2025 had actually increased from the previous year, adding complexity to the overall picture.
