Gallup Poll Finds U.S. Gambling Participation Has Fallen to 45%, Down From 64% a Decade Ago

A new Gallup poll shows that fewer American adults are gambling than at any point in the pollster’s recent tracking history, with just 45% of U.S. adults saying they took part in some form of gambling over the past year. That’s down sharply from 64% in 2016, and it breaks from the roughly two-thirds participation rate Gallup had recorded consistently going back to 2003.

The findings come at a moment when legal sports betting and online casino gambling have expanded into more states than ever, and advertising for sportsbooks and iGaming apps has become a fixture of televised sports. Despite that visibility, Gallup’s data suggests actual participation across most traditional gambling categories is shrinking rather than growing.

Where the Declines Are Steepest

Gallup’s telephone survey, conducted between June 1 and July 19 with 2,201 U.S. adults age 18 and older, found the sharpest drops in the three most common gambling activities. State lottery ticket purchases fell to 31% of adults, down from 49% in 2016. In-person casino gambling nearly halved, dropping from 26% to 14%. Participation in office pools tied to events like the Super Bowl or World Series slid from 15% to 7%.

Gallup also reported smaller but consistent declines in parimutuel betting, video poker, and bingo, along with a modest dip in sports betting participation specifically. The pollster noted that declines showed up across nearly every major demographic group it tracked, with drops ranging from roughly 15 to 25 percentage points compared with a decade ago.

Online Gambling Is the Exception

The one category that didn’t shrink: real-money internet gambling. Gallup found that 4% of U.S. adults reported gambling for money online, a share that has held steady rather than declined over the survey’s history. Gallup suggested the drop-off in in-person casino visits could be connected to the rise of online gambling options, even though the online figure itself remains small relative to the overall adult population.

Notably, a parallel web-based survey Gallup ran alongside the phone poll produced a higher overall estimate — 53% of adults reporting they’d gambled in the past year, eight points above the phone-based figure. Gallup pointed out that self-reported survey data can vary depending on methodology, and the gap between the two surveys illustrates how sensitive these estimates can be to how the question is asked.

What It Means for the Industry

The results don’t necessarily mean Americans are walking away from gambling altogether — Gallup was careful to note that its data shows fewer adults are willing to say they gambled compared to a decade ago, which isn’t quite the same thing as proving a wholesale retreat from the activity. But the numbers do complicate the narrative of runaway growth that’s often associated with the legal sports betting boom.

For bettors weighing where to actually place money, sportsbook reviews and promo codes remain the practical starting point regardless of how the broader participation trend shakes out, since finding the right platform and welcome offer still matters most at the individual level. Whether this dip proves to be a temporary blip tied to survey methodology or the start of a longer-term shift in how Americans engage with gambling, it’s a data point the industry will likely be watching closely as more states continue to weigh legalization.