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Poll
Finds Support for Gambling
By LAURENCE ARNOLD Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Americans strongly support legal
gambling despite concerns about the integrity of
sporting events and the threat of addiction, a new poll
shows.
Nearly two-thirds of American adults approve of legal
gambling, according to a Gallup poll released Wednesday.
Three-quarters of those surveyed said they approve of
state lotteries, while 67 percent said that opening a
casino helps a community's economy.
Many of those who approve of gambling reasoned that
people should have the right to choose what to do with
their money and how to enjoy their free time.
But the poll did not represent an unqualified
endorsement of gambling, which has grown substantially
in the past two decades. Thirty-seven states and the
District of Columbia now run lotteries; commercial
casinos operate in 10 states, and Indian tribes have
opened casinos in at least 22 states.
Almost half of those polled favored maintaining the
current level of legal gambling, while 22 percent
favored expansion, 16 percent wanted to roll it back and
13 percent supported a gambling ban.
There is a clear distinction in Americans' minds about
the economic benefits of casinos and the social impact
on the communities in which they operate,'' Gallup
reported.
Fifty-five percent of the adults surveyed said
legalized gambling ``is creating a compulsive gambling
problem in this country,'' and 68 percent said they
believe sports betting leads to cheating or fixing
games. The gambling industry may face a popularity
problem in the future, as the teen-agers who were
polled, more than the adults,
saw a dark side to gambling. Only 52 percent of
teen-agers polled said they approve of legal gambling,
compared with two-thirds of the adults. Asked to assess
the statement that gambling harms respect for the value
of hard work, 58 percent of the teens agreed strongly or
somewhat, compared with 43 percent of adults.
Gallup's telephone poll of 1,523 adults and 501
teen-agers from April 30-May 23 carries an error margin
of plus or minus 3 percentage points for adults, 5
percentage points for teen-agers. Jack Ludwig, vice
president at Gallup, cautioned that teen-agers have a
more narrow definition of ``gambling'' than do adults, a
majority of whom included stock market trading and
office pools under the term. Still, he said, ``Teens
tend to be a little more conservative than adults, a
little more skeptical toward gambling.'' Gallup timed
the poll to precede a lengthy report on gambling in
America. After two years of work, the nine-member
National
Gambling Impact Study Commission will release its
report Friday.
The commission's report and Gallup's poll are in
concert on core concepts: They agree that many Americans
enjoy gambling, that casinos bring jobs with them when
they enter a community, but that there are consequences,
chief among them gambling addiction. In the poll, a
majority of adults approved of a wide variety of
gambling, from bingo to horse-racing, but disapproved of
two forms: video poker machines at local establishments
and betting on professional sports. Similarly, the
commission frowned upon the proliferation of video poker
machines and, in a divided vote, recommended a ban on
legalized betting on collegiate sports. |
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