Warren Buffett Says This Hobby Is A Complete Waste Of Money

Warren Buffett is one of the most well-respected financiers of the last century, with Forbes estimating that he has over $149 billion to his name. He has also made it clear that a certain lifestyle lends itself to financial success, and it doesn't include frivolous spending (Buffett didn't even own an iPhone until 2020). Along with knowing that that your retirement lifestyle ultimately may determine your retirement success, Buffett was clear at the Berkshire Hathaway Annual General Meeting in 2007 that there is one lifestyle choice that is a complete waste of money.

"I'm not a prude about it, but to quite an extent, gambling is a tax on ignorance," he noted, per YouTube. "I find it socially revolting when a government preys on its citizens rather than serving them. A government shouldn't make it easy for people to take their social security checks and [waste them pulling] a handle." While Buffett outlines gambling as both a moral and political issue, the ability of Americans to access gambling has increased, with the Supreme Court changing federal gambling laws in 2018. In this current landscape, the likes of New York and New Jersey make up some of the states with the highest sports betting revenue in the United States.

The most gut-wrenching gambling losses in history are relegated to the bets of some of the nation's uber-rich, but at the individual level, losses continue to stack up. Warren Buffett saw this in 2007, far before the 2018 legislation legalized sports betting at a federal level. The American Gambling Association (AGA) reported a 48.8% increase in gross revenue from sports betting alone during August of 2025. While it's hard to track down specific losses on average from betting, the revenue for the year in the sector sits at $51.14 billion, at the time of writing.

This can be an indicator that fewer Americans are heeding Buffett's advice, which also recommends living beneath your means rather than above. Regardless, the billionaire believes one is better to save for long-term success rather than indulge in get-rich-quick techniques. Another way the billionaire advises individuals to save is by staying away from credit cards, noting to Yahoo! Finance in 2019 that he uses cash "98% of the time" per CNBC. Sticking to cash makes it even harder to gamble, with a high percentage of the industry relying on iGaming, according to the AGA.