Last updated: September 13, 2026. This page collects the official numbers on poker: how many people play, how big the live and online markets are, what the World Series of Poker draws, and how poker compares with other forms of gambling. Every figure is taken directly from the body that produced it (WSOP, Nevada Gaming Control Board, New Jersey DGE, American Gaming Association, Gallup, France’s ANJ), dated, and linked. Nothing is copied from another roundup, and the few calculations we make are shown.
Key poker statistics at a glance
- The 2026 WSOP Main Event drew 9,208 entries and a $85,634,400 prize pool, the fourth-largest in history (WSOP).
- The 2026 WSOP set an all-time attendance record with 251,899 entries across 100 bracelet events and about $470 million in prize money.
- Nevada poker rooms won $225.9 million in 2025, up 4.49%, across an average of 511 tables in 38 locations (Nevada Gaming Control Board).
- Poker is 1.4% of Nevada’s $15.8 billion gaming win — slot machines alone are $10.7 billion.
- New Jersey online poker generated $30.3 million in 2025 (+6.3%), about 1% of the state’s $2.91 billion iGaming win (NJ DGE).
- U.S. commercial gaming revenue hit a record $78.72 billion in 2025 (+9.2%); iGaming grew fastest at +27.6% (American Gaming Association).
- 45% of U.S. adults gambled in the past year, down from 64% in 2016; only 14% gambled in person at a casino (Gallup, 2026).
- In France, regulated online poker produced €525 million in gross gaming revenue in 2025 (+6.5%) from 1.9 million unique players (ANJ).
- Tournaments drive growth: French Sit & Go revenue rose 8.8% and MTTs 18.5%, while cash games fell 6.5% and now make up 19% of online poker revenue, down from 27% in 2020 (ANJ).
- Over six decades the WSOP has awarded more than $4 billion in prize money (WSOP).
How many people play poker?
Nobody counts poker players directly. No regulator issues a poker licence to individuals, and the big U.S. surveys (Gallup, AGA) ask about gambling in general or about video poker machines, not about live or online poker. The honest answer is built from the measurable pieces: regulated online player counts where they exist, tournament entries, and poker-room revenue. Those pieces are below.
- France is the one large market that publishes a real player count: 2.5 million active player accounts and 1.9 million unique players on regulated online poker in 2025, up 16.5% and 15.1% respectively, with 1.33 accounts per player — ANJ, Bilan du marché 2025.
- Poker players overlap heavily with sports bettors: 1.38 million French players were active in both online poker and sports betting in 2025 (+183,000 in a year) — ANJ 2025.
- The largest single poker tournament of 2026 drew 9,208 entries (WSOP Main Event, $10,000 buy-in); the largest $1,500 field ever, the 2025 Millionaire Maker, drew 11,996 — WSOP, July 2026 and WSOP, 2025 records.
- Across the whole 2026 WSOP, 251,899 entries were recorded in 100 live bracelet events — Pokerfuse, from WSOP results.
- In the United States, 45% of adults report any gambling in the past year, 14% gambled in person at a casino, 5% played a video poker machine and 4% gambled for money on the internet (telephone survey, June 1–July 19, 2026) — Gallup.
How big is the World Series of Poker?
| WSOP Main Event | Entries | Prize pool | Places paid | First prize |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 (57th) | 9,208 | $85,634,400 | 1,382 | $10,000,000 |
| 2025 (56th) | 9,735 | $90,535,500 | 1,461 | $10,000,000 |
| 2024 | 10,112 | — | — | — |
| 2023 | 10,043 | — | — | — |
- 2025 Main Event: 9,735 entries, $90,535,500 prize pool, 1,461 places paid, $15,000 min-cash, third-largest in history — WSOP, July 8, 2025.
- 2026 Main Event: 9,208 entrants, $85,634,400, final 1,382 in the money, $15,000 min-cash, $10,000,000 to the champion — WSOP official account, July 2026.
- 2025 series records: 246,960 entries (most ever at the time), $481,761,879 in prize money (largest ever), 43 prizes of $1 million or more, 57 events with $2M+ prize pools, 9 events with $10M+ — WSOP.
- Record fields in 2025: Millionaire Maker 11,996 entries (largest $1,500 buy-in field ever), Mid-Stakes Championship 3,797 (largest $3,000 field), Mystery Bounty PLO 5,284 (largest PLO field in live poker history) — WSOP.
- 2026 series: 251,899 entries (new all-time record), $469.9 million in prize money, $47.3 million in tournament fees of which $33.1 million retained by WSOP and $14.2 million paid to dealers and staff — Pokerfuse.
- The WSOP has awarded more than $4 billion since 1970 and runs about 40 Circuit events a year across five continents — WSOP.
How much money do live poker rooms make?
Nevada is the only U.S. state that reports poker-room results month by month for the whole state. “Card Games” in the Nevada report is the poker category: the house takes a rake, not a bet, so it is reported without a win percentage.
| Nevada, calendar year 2025 | Locations | Avg. units | Win | Change vs 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card Games (poker rooms) | 38 | 511 tables | $225,909,000 | +4.49% |
| Ultimate Texas Hold’em (house-banked) | 80 | 211 | $217,457,000 | — |
| Pai Gow Poker | 79 | 203 | $118,677,000 | −7.26% |
| 3-Card Poker | 86 | 150 | $99,168,000 | −8.60% |
| All table, counter and card games | 259 | 4,913 | $5,084,629,000 | — |
| Slot machines | 326 | 126,040 | $10,713,837,000 | — |
| Total gaming win | $15,798,466,000 | +1.23% |
- Poker rooms are 1.43% of Nevada’s total gaming win (225.9 / 15,798.5, our calculation) and 4.4% of table-game win — Nevada Gaming Control Board, December 2025 report.
- House-banked poker variants together (Ultimate Texas Hold’em, Pai Gow Poker, 3-Card Poker) won $435.3 million in 2025, nearly twice what player-versus-player poker rooms won — NGCB.
- In December 2025 alone, 33 Nevada locations ran 501 poker tables for $17.97 million in win — NGCB.
- Nevada’s total gaming win for 2025 was $15.8 billion, up 1.23% — NGCB.
- In France, Texas Hold’em accounts for more than 96% of casino “traditional games” revenue; French casinos took €2,816 million in 2025 (+3.4%) with 31.6 million visits, 82% of it from slots — ANJ 2025.
How big is online poker?
Regulated markets publish exact figures; offshore sites publish nothing. The numbers below are therefore a floor, not the whole market.
| Regulated market, 2025 | Online poker revenue | Change | Share of the market’s total iGaming |
|---|---|---|---|
| France (ANJ) | €525 million | +6.5% | 20% of €2,617M online GGR |
| New Jersey (DGE, peer-to-peer) | $30,268,221 | +6.3% | 1.04% of $2,911M iGaming win |
- New Jersey peer-to-peer poker: $30,268,221 in 2025 vs $28,467,466 in 2024 (+6.3%); December 2025 alone was $2,248,487 (−7.8% year on year) — NJ DGE, December 2025.
- New Jersey’s total internet gaming win was $2,911,241,318 in 2025 (+22%) and total gaming revenue $6.98 billion (+10%) — NJ DGE.
- Borgata’s licence (BetMGM, Borgata, partypoker skins) carried $13,847,169 of New Jersey’s 2025 poker win: BetMGM $6,291,886, Borgata $5,320,699, partypoker $2,234,584 — NJ DGE, internet gross revenue returns.
- France: online poker GGR €525 million (+6.5% after −2.1% in 2024). Sit & Go €358M (+8.8%, 68% of the total), MTT €68M (+18.5%), cash game €100M (−6.5%; 19% of poker GGR vs 27% in 2020) — ANJ 2025.
- Average gross revenue per active French poker account: €213, down 8.6% — growth is coming from more, more casual players rather than bigger spend — ANJ 2025.
- Poker’s share of France’s online gambling revenue fell from 23% in 2023 to 20% in 2025 as sports betting rose to 68% — ANJ 2025.
- Pennsylvania’s iGaming revenue reached $2,775,554,529 in 2025 (+27.22%) inside a record $6,796,211,719 total gaming revenue; the Board does not break out poker in its annual release — PGCB, January 21, 2026.
How does poker compare with the rest of the gambling industry?
- U.S. commercial gaming gross revenue: $78.72 billion in 2025, +9.2%, a record; gaming taxes $18.09 billion (+15.1%) — American Gaming Association.
- Traditional (land-based) gaming $50.94 billion (+2.3%); sports betting $16.96 billion (+22.8%) on a handle of $166.94 billion; iGaming $10.74 billion (+27.6%) — AGA.
- Gallup: the share of Americans who say gambling is morally acceptable fell to 57%, from 67% in 2016; in-person casino gambling peaked at 30% in 2003 and is 14% today; state lottery play fell from 49% to 31% — Gallup, 2026.
- Men (49%) gamble more than women (40%); households earning $100,000+ gamble most (54%); Gallup’s web survey puts overall participation higher, at 53% — Gallup.
- France’s whole regulated online market grew to €2,617 million (+8.5%) with 4.2 million unique online players; sports betting is €1,766 million of it — ANJ 2025.
Methodology and sources
Every number on this page was read on the publishing organisation’s own page or PDF on September 13, 2026. Where we compute a ratio (poker’s share of Nevada or New Jersey revenue), the formula is shown next to the result. Two figures for the 2026 WSOP series total come from Pokerfuse’s tally of official WSOP results because WSOP had not published a series wrap-up at the time of writing; the Main Event figures come from WSOP directly. We do not use market-size estimates from consultancies or from other statistics roundups.
- World Series of Poker — official announcements, 2025 and 2026.
- Nevada Gaming Control Board — Monthly Revenue Report, December 2025.
- New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement — December 2025 press release and internet gross revenue returns.
- Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board — 2025 revenue release, January 21, 2026.
- American Gaming Association — Commercial Gaming Revenue Tracker, 2025 annual results.
- Gallup — gambling participation survey, June–July 2026.
- Autorité nationale des jeux (ANJ) — Bilan du marché des jeux d’argent et de hasard 2025.
How to cite this page
You are welcome to quote any figure here with its primary source. If this compilation saved you time, a link back helps us keep it current: Smart Poker Pro, “Poker Statistics 2026: How Many People Play Poker”, updated September 13, 2026. The page is refreshed after each WSOP, each Nevada and New Jersey year-end report, and each ANJ annual review.
