Is Gambling Morally Wrong? More Americans Say ‘Yes’
Is gambling morally wrong? It’s hard to say without context and a definition of gambling, but general views on this question greatly depend on where you live. In the U.S., it appears that more people think it’s bad than ever before this century.
According to a Gallup poll released in June 2026, gambling is viewed as morally acceptable by the fewest percentage of Americans since Gallup began tracking views on it in 2003.
Most Americans (57%) still see gambling as morally acceptable, but it’s never been this polarizing, with gambling’s moral acceptability peaking in 2020 and 2022 at 71% of respondents. The last few years have been rough for gambling.
The 2026 poll found that 35% find gambling to be morally wrong, and 8% said it depends on the situation or didn’t have an opinion.
Despite the worsening perception of gambling, the U.S. is still among the world’s most gambling-friendly countries regarding acceptance.
Online Gambling Explodes
Since 2003, critics say commercialized gambling has become more antisocial and parasitic, due to the expansion of online gambling and its ruthless advertising. In 2025, Americans lost $27 billion to state-sanctioned online gambling alone. Most forms of gambling in the U.S. continue to grow.
The online gambling industry as it exists today is fine-tuned to siphon wealth from working people, their families, and communities. Online gambling has negligible economic benefits.
It’s an industry that features a Pareto distribution, in which most of the revenue comes from the hardcore users. The result is a ripple effect of financial ruin.
Historically speaking, there isn’t anything wrong about gambling as an activity. Gambling has existed in North America for at least 12,000 years.
It’s an industry, sponsored by the state (to use Warren Buffett’s phrasing), that harms people. Illegal gambling enterprises also prey on and devastate people.
Tide Turning
The Gallup poll followed a May 2026 survey from Overton Insights that showed more Americans oppose legal sports betting than support it. Previous polls showed most Americans supported legal sports betting.
An early 2026 poll from the Siena Research Institute found that 60% of online sports bettors chase losses, a hallmark sign of a gambling problem.
In October, the Pew Research Center found that 43% of Americans think legal sports betting is “bad for society,” a sentiment similar to viewing gambling as morally wrong.
For prediction markets, a nascent form of stock-market-style sportsbook, most Americans view these products as gambling.
Can American gambling attitudes continue to fall? That appears to be likely, as the industry hasn’t been this embattled and divided in recent memory.
Source: Gallup Poll, June 2026
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