Warren Buffett Says Capital Markets Have Turned Into a 'Gambling Den'

Legendary investor Warren Buffett has criticised the condition of the stock market, which he believes is increasingly dominated by speculative activity rather than long-term investment. According to him, the growing prevalence of practices resembling gambling makes it increasingly difficult to find shares with attractive valuations. “It’s hard to find investment value when everyone prefers to gamble,” Buffett said in an interview with CNBC.com, quoted on Thursday (16/7/2026). The Berkshire Hathaway chairman said that valuable investment opportunities are currently increasingly scarce, so investors are required to have high levels of patience and discipline. Buffett, who for decades has been known as an adherent of the value investing strategy, believes the best opportunities do not always come around all the time. He explained that there are periods when various investment opportunities appear very quickly, but there are also times when investors are lucky if they find just one good opportunity in several years. According to Buffett, the latter condition is actually a more common state of affairs in the market. Previously in May, Buffett also launched a sharp critique of the stock market by likening it to a church that has a casino inside it. He specifically highlighted the surge in one-day options trading, which he believes more closely resembles gambling activity than investment. Buffett’s comments emerged amid a stock market rally that has hit new record highs throughout this year despite being overshadowed by various uncertainties, including energy price shocks due to the ongoing war with Iran. A number of observers also believe that the euphoria over shares related to the development of artificial intelligence (AI), coupled with the rise of options trading and leveraged exchange-traded funds (ETFs), has triggered an increase in speculation in the market. At the same time, the stock market is also increasingly crowded with retail investors who are flocking to buy shares of memory chip maker Micron as well as shares from the initial public offering (IPO) of SpaceX. Buffett believes the human tendency to gamble pushes the financial industry to create more speculators rather than build long-term investors. “Because people love to gamble so much, more money is made by creating gamblers than by building investors,” said Buffett.