No Gambling At Home

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No Gambling At Home

Special Report - March 15, 2010
A new national study released March 11 found that a majority of Americans continue to see gambling in a negative light and oppose efforts to expand its legalization. The study by Farleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind Poll asked Americans a variety of questions related to casinos, gambling, betting online, and betting on sports. The major findings include:

46 percent of Americans think “casinos have a negative effect on the local community,” while 38 percent think casinos have a positive effect on the local community.
54 percent of Americans oppose efforts to bring “any form of gambling facility to their own town.”
67 percent of Americans oppose the legalization of Internet gambling.
53 percent of Americans oppose the legalization of sports betting in all states.

Still, 65 percent of those asked had a favorable opinion of Las Vegas, compared to only 22 percent with an unfavorable opinion of the nation’s premier gambling city. According to Donald Hoover, a professor in FDU’s International School of Hospitality and Tourism Management and a former casino executive, “Citizens may like the jobs and tax revenue from gaming, but they don’t necessarily want it in their backyards.”

This newest study comes less than a month after a North Carolina poll found that 56 percent of North Carolinians would oppose efforts to legalize video poker in the state. You can read our previous story about that study, and a recent ruling by the North Carolina Court of Appeals upholding the state’s current prohibition on video poker, here.