According to a Gallup survey conducted June 14-23, about half of Americans said they bought a state lottery ticket within the last year. The figures are similar to those from 2003 and 2007, but significantly down from the 57 percent who said they played the state lottery in 1996 and 1999. Since then, the number of states with lotteries has grown from 37 states and the District of Columbia to 44.
It’s not clear why lottery players have declined. But Gallup said one reason is more gambling options, including the proliferation of online poker and online fantasy sports leagues.
Playing a state lottery is the most popular of 11 common gambling activities measured in Gallup’s latest update on gambling behavior. Only 26 percent said they visited a casino. Fifteen percent reported participating in a sports-related office pool, and one in 10 Americans said they participated in wagering on professional sports events or playing video poker.
The latest Gallup update dispels the notion that state-sponsored lotteries prey on the poor and less educated. The figures show that Americans with an annual household income of less than $36,000 a year were much less likely than higher-income Americans to say they have purchased a state lottery ticket within the past year. Four in 10 lower-income Americans said they bought a lottery ticket during that time, while 56 percent of middle-income Americans and 53 percent of upper-income Americans said they purchased a lottery ticket in that time period.
Also the poll showed 47 percent of Americans with a high-school diploma or less and 45 percent of those with postgraduate education said they have purchased a state lottery ticket. Americans with some college education and those with a college degree both came in at 53 percent. Gallup studies from 1999, 2004 and 2007 indicated higher-income Americans were more likely than lower-income Americans to say they gambled. In two of the three, Gallup found that more highly educated Americans were more likely than less-educated Americans to say they gambled.
The report also showed only 7 percent of Americans said they sometimes gamble more than they should. Another 7 percent said gambling has caused some problems in their family. Over the years the responses to those two questions have remained the same.
Record lottery jackpots have topped $1 billion this year, and many states are reporting increased revenues from lottery ticket sales—although the percentage of the adult population who play the lottery has not increased in recent years.
This Gallup poll used telephone interviews with a random sample of 1,025 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The poll included 60 percent cellphone respondents and 40 percent landline respondents. The margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
