Gallup poll shows that lottery remains tops for U.S. punters
News on 26 Jul 2016
News on 26 Jul 2016
A new survey by the respected Gallup Poll organisation in the United States has reaffirmed that lottery wagering remained the top favourite with American punters over the past year, with around 50 percent of respondents confirming they had gambled on a state lottery.
Only 3 percent said they had gambled online, one of the lowest preferences to emerge from the survey, whilst the second most popular form of gambling was visiting brick and mortar casinos (26 percent); 15 percent of respondents said they had participated in an office betting pool, and 10 percent said they had wagered on professional sports outcomes.
Online gambling has inched up just 1 percent since the last study in 2007 recorded participation at 2 percent.
Gallup notes that although sports betting has grown in the short term (since 2007) it has in fact declined over the long term (since 1989) when 22 percent of the survey sample said they had gambled on professional sports, 14 percent on college games, 8 percent on boxing events and 22 percent on office pools.
The latest survey showed that 7 percent of respondents (1 in 10) acknowledged that they had sometimes spent more on gambling than was wise, and 7 percent conceded that their gambling had been a source of contention in their families.
Gallup notes that these percentages have changed little over the long term.
Interestingly, the 2016 survey showed that 67 percent of respondents thought gambling in general is morally acceptable.
The results for the Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted June 14-23, 2016, with a random sample of 1,025 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95 percent confidence level.
Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 60 percent cellphone respondents and 40 percent landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods.
See a report on the full results of the study here:
