Poll shows that Americans still like sports betting

The latest in a series of regular PublicMind polls from the Fairleigh Dickinson University shows little change from previous studies, indicating that just over half of Americans are in favour of having legalised sports betting available in all states.

However, when it comes to the wider choice of legalised online gambling generally (ie casino and poker) almost three-quarters of respondents rejected the idea, reports the Associated Press news agency.

The nationwide telephone poll found 51 percent of respondents in favour of sports betting, but only 27 percent supporting Internet gambling.

“These national figures are similar to what we’ve seen in our recent polls of New Jersey voters,” said Krista Jenkins, director of the poll and a professor of political science at the university.

The poll also finds that one in five American men acknowledge betting on sports, and that they are the group most likely to support expanding legal sports betting.

Support for more widely available legal sports betting has, however, soared since a similar poll by the University almost three years ago, which found that just 39 percent of respondents were in favour of more accessible legal sports betting.

Those in favour of legalised online gambling generally have increased since 2010, too – 27 percent against 21 percent back then. Men were more in favour of this form of online gambling than women – 36 percent vs. 19 percent.

In the latest poll, and as in previous polls, by gender 60 percent of men voted for sportsbetting, compared with 43 percent of women respondents.

Political party choice appears to make little difference; in the current poll 27 percent of Democrats and 26 percent of Republicans supported it, while 59 percent of Democrats and 63 percent of Republicans opposed it. Independents had roughly the same levels of support, as well.

814 registered voters were polled for the current study, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.