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Americans spent nearly $170 billion on sports bets in 2025, representing more than double the amount Americans spent on movies, books, music, and museums combined last year, a new analysis finds as the betting industry turns to increasingly predatory tactics.

According to an analysis by Fortune, Americans placed $166 billion in sports bets last year, while spending a total of $70 billion combined on movie theater-going, recorded or live music, books, and museums.

The figure, while staggering, doesn’t even include betting in online prediction markets run by companies like Kalshi and Polymarket, or betting in tribal casinos in certain states where they don’t have to report such revenue. It also shot to such staggering heights despite sports betting not being legal in 11 states, and 20 states barring online sports betting.

Fortune reports that the true number spent on sports betting last year could be nearly $300 billion when those alternative avenues are added to the total. This amounts to $1,000 spent per U.S. adult on average, and would put the spending on sports betting at quadruple the amount spent on the aforementioned arts-related leisure activities.

Public health experts have been warning for years that the rapidly growing sports betting and prediction market industries amount to a public health crisis. A study published last month found that diagnoses for gambling-related disorders, including addiction, have risen by 60 percent since 2018 in states that legalized sports betting after the Supreme Court struck down a law that barred betting on sports.

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