It is actually less than 1%. If you figure how many people gamble, and how many actually are able to PROVE they make a profit from it, not only to themselves (which is usually the hardest thing to do) but to others as well.
As I said in another post, that generally requires tax returns, and paperwork that no one is going to give to anyone buy a lawyer or an accountant.
It is one thing to kid yourself and guys around you that you make money, it is totally another to be able to show it.
Most guys that do this have a disposeable income, so the few wins they have countermand the losses, so even if they are marginal losers (which statistically most people should be) it appears to them they are marginal winners.
A vast majority of guys are going to fall with in that 48-52% range, which for all intents and purposes is a LOSING range, marginally losing, but still losing. If you have won 1,876,935 in your life time, and lost 1,880,235. You are a losing bettor. You have won a lot but you have lost more.
Again, since a vast majority do not keep records they do not know, you can be damn sure they know the winners, but those losers tend to be forgotten.
But just because guys lose doesn't mean they have to be buried, just like guys that can win really are not getting rich doing it either.
How many posts doyou see where guys say they turn 250 into 10,000? A lot right, those guys are more than likely, (and I would bet on it) long term losers. They risk take, they over bet, they have no plan. They have good runs, but they definately have WORSE runs. How many posts do you see that say they just truned 45K into $2.85? Not many, but there are probably a lot more of the latter than the former.
Most people just don't have the mentality or the personality to do it. The picking the winners is the EASY part, it is all the other stuff that gets in the way. That is why when people are placed in the more stressful situation they almost all ineviteably fail. Even the so called "sharp" guys out there.