How Many People Gamble Worldwide?
There's no global census of gamblers: no body counts every gambler on earth the way the AGA counts US casino revenue. The best available estimate combines a 2024 Lancet Public Health meta-analysis of 366 studies across 68 countries (46.2% past-year participation among adults) with UN population data, giving roughly 2.9 billion people (range: 2.6-3.2 billion) who gambled in the past year. That's an extrapolation, shown working below, not an official count. This page also ranks the handful of countries with a comparable, named national survey, rather than guessing at ones that don't have one.
Where the 2.9 Billion Figure Comes From
Most "X billion gamblers worldwide" numbers you'll see cited trace back to an unnamed market-research estimate. This one traces back to a named, peer-reviewed source, and the calculation is shown in full so you can judge its limits yourself.
- Sample CoverageThe Lancet meta-analysis's 46.2% figure is pooled from 366 nationally- or regionally-representative studies in 68 countries, covering an estimated 41% of the global adult population. Its authors flag that coverage skews toward high-income countries, with no estimates at all from Pacific Island states, Central Asia, or the Caribbean. Applying 46.2% to the other 59% of the world's adults assumes they behave similarly: an assumption, not a measurement.
- Wide IntervalThe pooled estimate carries a 95% confidence interval of 41.7%-50.8%, reflecting real variation across the underlying studies (different countries, years, survey methods, and definitions of "gambling"). Applied to the same population base, that range spans ~2.6 billion to ~3.2 billion people, a 600-million-person spread, which is why this page reports a range, not a single confident number.
- Age Cutoff"74.8% aged 15+" is a 2021 global estimate; it's used here as a reasonable stand-in for "adults" since the underlying studies don't share one consistent minimum age (they range from 15 to 21; see the country table below). This introduces additional imprecision at the margin.
Sourced National Participation Rates
Only countries with a specific, named survey or regulator publishing a participation rate are listed. This is not, and doesn't claim to be, the world's actual top countries by number of gamblers. Several of the world's most populous countries (China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Nigeria) have no comparable national gambling-participation survey this page could source.
| Country | Participation | Period | Ages surveyed | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 57% | Past 12 months | 21+ (registered voters) | 2025 | American Gaming Association / Kantar |
| Sweden | 71% | Past 12 months | 18+ | 2024 | Spelinspektionen (Swedish Gambling Authority) |
| Australia | 65% | Past 12 months | 18+ | 2024 | AIFS / Australian Gambling Research Centre |
| Canada | 64.5% | Past 12 months | 15+ | 2018 | Statistics Canada |
| Great Britain | 47% | Past 4 weeks* | 18+ | 2025 | UK Gambling Commission (GSGB) |
| Germany | 36.4% | Past 12 months | 16-70 | 2024/25 | University of Bremen / IFT, funded by Deutscher Lotto- und Totoblock |
| Ireland | 49% | Past 12 months | 15+ | 2019-20 | Health Research Board |
*Great Britain's headline participation metric is past-4-weeks, not past-12-months like the other six rows, so it's not directly comparable, which is why it's flagged in the ranking below. Germany's survey was funded by Deutscher Lotto- und Totoblock, an association of Germany's state lottery operators, an industry-adjacent funder worth noting, though the fieldwork was run by independent academic researchers. Ireland also has a 2023 ESRI survey showing 74% for a past-4-weeks measure, illustrating the same period-sensitivity as Great Britain's figure.
Estimated Number of Gamblers, by Country
Participation rate × total national population (2026, Worldometer/UN), a rough upper-bound approximation, since it applies each survey's participation rate to the whole population rather than only the age group actually surveyed. Ranked among the seven sourced countries above only.
Estimated Gamblers by Country
Frequently Asked Questions
How Many People Gamble Worldwide?
No one knows precisely. The most defensible estimate, combining a 2024 Lancet Public Health meta-analysis with UN population data, is roughly 2.9 billion people in the past year, with a plausible range of 2.6 to 3.2 billion. Treat it as an order-of-magnitude figure, not a count.
Why Isn't China, India, or Indonesia on the Country List?
Because this page only lists countries with a specific, named national survey or regulator publishing a participation rate, and no comparable one could be sourced for those countries in this pass. That doesn't mean people there don't gamble (China's state lottery alone has enormous turnover, and unregulated/offshore betting is widespread in several of these markets). It means a directly comparable, citable participation percentage wasn't found. This is a genuine gap in this page, not a claim that gambling doesn't happen there.
Does "Gambling Participation" Include the Lottery?
In almost every survey on this page, yes, and it matters a lot. Great Britain's GSGB shows 47% of adults gambling in the past 4 weeks including the National Lottery, but only 27% excluding it. Sweden's 71% figure is driven heavily by lottery and number games specifically (84% participation among Swedish gamblers). A narrower definition, excluding lottery and scratchcards, would produce meaningfully lower participation rates across almost every country on this page.
Why Does Great Britain's Figure Use a Different Time Period Than the Others?
The Gambling Commission's Gambling Survey for Great Britain reports past-4-weeks participation as its headline metric, while the US, Sweden, Australia, Canada, and Ireland surveys report past-12-months. A shorter reference period generally produces a lower participation rate than a longer one for the same population, so Great Britain's 47% is not directly comparable to the other six countries' figures. It's flagged with an asterisk in the ranking above rather than presented as equivalent.
Sources
- Ukhova, D. et al., "The prevalence of gambling and problematic gambling: a systematic review and meta-analysis," The Lancet Public Health, Vol. 9, Issue 8 (2024). thelancet.com
- Worldometer / UN Population Division, world and country population figures, 2026 medium-fertility projections. worldometers.info
- CIA World Factbook (via IndexMundi), world age-structure estimate (15+ share), 2021. indexmundi.com
- American Gaming Association, American Attitudes Toward Gaming 2025, fielded Jul-Aug 2025, published 30 Oct 2025. americangaming.org
- Spelinspektionen (Swedish Gambling Authority), 2024 gambling participation survey, published 10 Feb 2025. gamblinginsider.com
- Australian Institute of Family Studies / Australian Gambling Research Centre, National Gambling Prevalence Study Pilot, published 24 Sep 2025. aifs.gov.au
- Statistics Canada, Who gambles and who experiences gambling problems in Canada, 2018 Canadian Community Health Survey-Gambling Rapid Response module. statcan.gc.ca
- UK Gambling Commission, Gambling Survey for Great Britain (GSGB): Annual Report 2025, published 16 Jul 2026. gamblingcommission.gov.uk
- University of Bremen / Institute for Interdisciplinary Addiction and Drug Research, German gambling survey, fieldwork Aug-Nov 2025, reported 17 Mar 2026. igaming.org
- Health Research Board (Ireland), Gambling in the Republic of Ireland: Results from the 2019-20 National Drug and Alcohol Survey. hrb.ie