Betting in America Eclipses the Music and Film Industry

According to recent data, gambling has become Americans’ favorite pastime, as people are collectively spending vastly more money on wagering than on other popular forms of entertainment, such as music or going to the cinema.

Gambling Has Seen Rapid Growth In Just a Few Years

According to Martin Conway, an adjunct lecturer in Georgetown University’s Sports Industry Management program, sports gambling has filled a gap in the entertainment market and is increasingly competing with other forms of entertainment and hospitality for consumers’ time and spending. As sports betting has become more widespread, he argues, it has also become more socially accepted as a mainstream form of entertainment.

Conway also notes that sports betting has evolved far beyond simply wagering on who will win a game. The growth of in-game and proposition bets allows fans to engage with specific moments and events throughout a contest. In turn, this has transformed betting into a more interactive form of fan engagement.

Before the Supreme Court struck down the federal ban on sports betting in 2018, legal sports wagering was virtually nonexistent across most of the US. What followed was one of the fastest expansions of a consumer industry in modern American history.

Here Are the Numbers

In 2025, Americans wagered an estimated $166 billion on sports betting, which is more than the combined annual revenue of the US movie, music, book, and museum industries. For comparison, the North American box office generated $8.87 billion in 2025, still 22% below pre-pandemic levels. 

Meanwhile, recorded music revenue reached a record $11.5 billion. Live music, including concerts and festivals, brought in $18.51 billion. Book publishers tracked by the Association of American Publishers reported $14.6 billion in revenue, and US museums generated an estimated $16.4 billion. Together, those industries produced roughly $70 billion in revenue, which is still less than half the amount Americans bet on sporting events that year.

However, that total also excludes sports wagering conducted through prediction market platforms such as Kalshi and Polymarket, which have rapidly expanded into sports-related contracts after receiving federal regulatory approval. The debate over whether prediction markets constitute a form of gambling continues, so it may not be entirely appropriate to include them in this statistic. That being said, the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries certainly thinks so, as the organization recently stated that prediction markets are “hidden gambling.”

According to Victor Matheson, an economist at Holy Cross, prediction markets could account for an additional $50 billion to $100 billion in annual betting handle. Combined with legal sportsbooks and unreported tribal wagering, total US sports betting volume in 2025 may have approached $300 billion.

It should also be noted that Betting losses are highly concentrated rather than evenly distributed across users. An estimated 95% of all losses are incurred by just 5% of bettors. This is a relatively small group of heavy gamblers whose betting behavior bears little resemblance to that of casual fans. Such a discrepancy is a big problem, according to Matheson.

Who Is Spending the Most?

According to Matheson, sports betting has attracted a new demographic of young, college-educated men who have traditionally been less interested in other forms of gambling. This might also explain why young men are increasingly seeking help with gambling-related issues.

Many are drawn in by the belief that their knowledge of sports gives them an advantage over the average bettor. In reality, Matheson argues, sportsbooks price their markets to account for that information, leaving little opportunity for bettors to gain a meaningful edge despite their confidence.

According to Matheson, addictive products such as what betting companies offer have to strike a balance between maximizing revenue from heavy users and avoiding losses so severe that those customers stop participating altogether.