KEY TAKEAWAYS
Gambling has become easier to reach than at any point in recent memory, yet public opinion has not simply moved with it. In a Gallup poll fielded in May 2026, 57% of U.S. adults said gambling is morally acceptable, a record low for the question and down from 67% in 2016. In a separate Gallup survey of 2,201 adults in mid-2026, 45% said they had gambled in the past year, down from 64% a decade earlier. Pew Research Center found in 2025 that more Americans see legal sports betting as bad for society than did three years earlier. This article looks at what these and other polls show about how everyday Americans feel about gambling, where the numbers are shifting and where they are not, and why the pollsters themselves urge caution. It relies on published survey data, dates every figure and offers no predictions, because attitudes can change quickly.
Where American Attitudes Stand
Public opinion on gambling has been fairly stable for decades, with ups and downs. Gallup has asked Americans since 2001 whether they consider gambling morally acceptable or morally wrong. In its 2025 reading, 63% called it acceptable, the same as in 2001 and below a recent peak of 71% in 2020 and 2022. A majority has long accepted gambling as a moral matter, even as individual forms of gambling have been debated. That is the baseline against which the newest numbers look like a shift.
The latest readings point down. Gallup’s Values and Beliefs poll, conducted May 1 to 17, 2026 among 1,001 adults, found that 57% called gambling morally acceptable and 35% called it morally wrong, with 8% having no opinion. Gallup described the 57% as a record low. The pollster also reported that independents’ acceptance fell by 13 points over the past year. The drop is large for a measure that had barely moved for two decades. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 4 percentage points, so the direction is clearer than any single figure. For why people gamble in the first place, see why people gamble and what motive research says.
What the Polls Show
Fewer Americans say they gamble
Gallup’s mid-2026 telephone survey, conducted June 1 to July 19 among 2,201 adults, found that 45% of U.S. adults reported gambling in some form in the past year, compared with 64% in 2016 and 63% in 2007. The sharpest drops were in the three most common activities. Buying a state lottery ticket fell from 49% to 31%, gambling in person at a casino from 26% to 14%, and taking part in an office pool on an event such as the World Series or Super Bowl from 15% to 7%. The most familiar forms of gambling have shrunk the most in these figures. Online gambling for money, by contrast, rose slightly from 3% to 4%, and Gallup noted it was the only form measured that had not declined.
Sports betting under a brighter spotlight
Pew Research Center surveyed 9,916 U.S. adults between July 8 and August 3, 2025, and found that 43% said the fact that betting on sports is now legal in much of the country is a bad thing for society, up from 34% in 2022. About 7% said it is a good thing and half said neither good nor bad. On the question of sports, 40% said it was a bad thing, up from 33%. The share seeing harm grew while the share seeing benefit barely moved. Pew reported the sharpest change among men under 30: 47% called legal sports betting bad for society, up from 22% in 2022. Meanwhile, 22% of adults said they had personally bet money on sports in the past year, up slightly from 19% in 2022, a figure that includes bets with friends or family, online betting and betting in person.
Professional sports, college sports and the line people draw
People also draw distinctions between types of betting. An AP-NORC poll of 1,112 adults conducted February 6 to 10, 2025 found that about 6 in 10 Americans think betting on professional sports should be legal in their state, while only about 4 in 10 say the same about college sports, and more than half oppose legal betting on college sports. An earlier AP-NORC poll in 2019 found that 32% of Americans said they took part at least occasionally in office pools or friendly wagers, which it called the most popular form of casual gambling. Many people accept a bet among friends more readily than a bet on an amateur athlete. The cultural place of that friendly kind of wager is explored in why people join March Madness bracket pools.
A hypothetical office, ten years apart
Imagine a hypothetical office that once ran a Super Bowl pool every year, with a few dozen people chipping in a few dollars. In this scenario the pool never made anyone rich, but it gave coworkers something to talk about on Monday morning. Ten years later, the same company has a remote workforce, the pool has quietly stopped and a few employees place their own bets on an app instead. Part of the change in participation can be a change in where and with whom people gamble. Nothing here describes a real company, and every detail is an example. The scenario shows the kind of shift that Gallup’s data on office pools suggest, not a result from any one workplace.
What’s Really Going On: Behavior, Comfort and Context
Gallup offers several possible explanations for its participation figures. The decline in in-person casino gambling could be a result of the rise of internet gambling, and technology changes may explain the drop in office pools, with more people working remotely. Pollsters also point to a measurement issue. Gallup’s own web survey and a Pew web survey found nearly identical rates of sports gambling, 21% and 22%, while Gallup’s telephone survey produced a lower figure of 15%. How a question is asked can change how many people say they gamble.
Gallup’s closing analysis is cautious. Whether the decline represents a sharp turn away from gambling, a reluctance of respondents to say they gamble, or both is unclear. To the extent it signals that Americans are less comfortable saying they gamble, it could be tied to lessening public acceptance of gambling or a reluctance to appear to take risks with money when rising costs and affordability are major concerns. Gallup still concluded that because web estimates also fell below earlier phone estimates, there is some confidence that fewer Americans now gamble. Attitudes and behavior are measured separately, and each can move on its own. For how the shift away from gambling happens at the individual level, see why people eventually decide to stop gambling.
The Other Side: What Has Not Changed
The headline numbers do not mean gambling is fading from American life. Gallup found that betting on professional and college sports has been relatively flat since 2003, and Pew found the share who bet on sports in the past year edged up. Most people in Pew’s survey said legal sports betting is neither good nor bad for society. A growing worry has not turned into a majority verdict against gambling. Poll results also describe adults only and do not show what happens within any household or community.
The real costs of gambling are the reason surveys on harm continue. If gambling is causing harm, the National Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-MY-RESET, offers call, text and chat support 24/7. It is not an emergency line; in a crisis, call 911 or 988. Opinion polls measure how people feel about gambling, not whether any one person is in trouble, and the figures here are a snapshot as of 2026.
Common Misreadings About Gambling Polls
The first misreading is that Americans are turning against gambling across the board. The polls show a mixed picture: Gallup’s moral acceptance fell to 57%, yet more than half of adults still call gambling morally acceptable, and Pew found most adults say legal sports betting is neither good nor bad. A record low is still a majority.
The second is that fewer people gambling means less online betting. Gallup reported that internet gambling was the only form measured that did not decline, rising from 3% to 4%, while Pew’s measure of sports betting edged up. Participation in some forms is falling while participation online holds steady or grows.
The third is that a poll number is a precise count of behavior. Gallup’s telephone and web surveys produced different sports gambling rates, and the pollster itself notes the possibility that respondents are reluctant to say they gamble. A survey measures what people are willing to report, and the method matters.
Where to Read Next
If attitudes toward gambling are changing, so are the rituals around it. For one long-standing example of how people try to shape luck, see why gamblers trust lucky rituals and superstitions. For a bettor’s view of a bet that came close, read why bettors remember the parlay that almost hit. Culture and experience tell the same story from two angles: what a society thinks about gambling and what it feels like to a person placing a bet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Sources & References
- Gallup — Moral Acceptability Falls for Several Behaviors
- Gallup — Fewer U.S. Adults Say They Gamble
- Gallup — Trends in U.S. Adults’ Acceptance of Moral and Values Behaviors
- Pew Research Center — Americans increasingly see legal sports betting as a bad thing for society and sports
- AP News — More than half of US adults don’t want legal betting on college sports in their state: AP-NORC poll
- AP-NORC — Should Gambling on Sports be Legal?
- National Council on Problem Gambling — About the National Problem Gambling Helpline
