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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