New poll shows that Americans are in favour of sports betting

The poll revealed that 55 per cent of the people that answered are in favour of a legalised sports betting industry in the US.

US.- A poll conducted by the Seton Hall Sports Poll revealed that by a margin of 55 to 35 per cent, the American public favours legalised betting on sports events. However, by a margin of 48 to 42 per cent, the same respondents said that the industry would negatively impact the integrity of sports events.

The poll that was conducted over landlines and cell phones to 736 randomly selected people across the US and has a margin of error of 3.7 per cent. The poll asked people whether they feel that sports betting should be controlled by each state or by the federal government, and 62 per cent said that it should be under state control.

Rick Gentile, director of the poll, which is sponsored by the Sharkey Institute, said: “It’s outrageous when you think about it. It comes close to saying ‘We don’t care about the legitimacy of the games, what matters is being able to bet on them. A majority favours gambling, and by a slimmer margin think the games might be fixed as a result.”