Older adults gamble less, even as sports gambling rises among young men

Sports gambling is rising among young American men, resulting in more of them going broke or being financially insecure. But among all age groups combined, gambling has actually gone down over the past decade. “Americans say they are gambling less than they were a decade ago. According to a recent Gallup poll, 45 percent of US adults reported gambling in the past 12 months in 2026, down from 64 percent in 2016,” reports The Doomslayer.

Gallup adds:

Americans are significantly less likely than they were 10 years ago to say they participate in a variety of gambling activities. The sharpest drops are in the three most common activities: buying a state lottery ticket, gambling in person at a casino and participating in an office pool. Participation in less common forms of gambling, such as playing bingo for money or video poker, has also declined.

As a result, the percentage of U.S. adults who report doing any kind of gambling during the past year is 45%, down from 64% a decade ago and from similar proportions in 2003 and 2007….

These lower reported gambling rates coincide with a decline in the percentage of Americans who say that gambling is “morally acceptable,” from 67% in 2016 to a new low of 57% earlier this year.

Casino gambling peaked in 2003; State lotteries peaked in the 1990s.