Poll finds backing for sports bets
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Scrambling to fill out a March Madness bracket? Betting lunch money that you can pinpoint the Final Four better than co-workers or family?
You’re among about one-third of Americans who at least occasionally bet on sports among friends or through an office pool, according to a poll released Wednesday by The Associated PRESS-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Still, with all the action on the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the survey finds less support for legal betting on college sports than on the pros. Six in 10 in the survey want betting on professional sports to be legal in their state, far more than the 42 percent who feel that way about college athletics.
This is the first college basketball championship since the Supreme Court cleared the way last year for states to offer legal sports betting if they choose. Eight states currently allow the wagers: Delaware, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, West Virginia and New Mexico.
Many more states are considering sports betting.
Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, which tracks sports gambling legislation, estimates that sports betting will be legal in 39 states by the end of 2023. The company estimates $15.2 billion in sports bets would be made on the NCAA tournament alone if sports betting were legalized across the country.
Among those very interested in sports, 69 percent say betting on professional sports should be legal, and 52 percent say the same about college sports. Among those who are not very interested in sports, 50 percent favor betting on pro sports, and 38 percent support wagers on college sports.
Men are somewhat more likely than women to support gambling on professional sports, by a margin of 65 percent to 56 percent. Forty-five percent of men and 40 percent of women think betting on college sports should be legal.
Support for legal sports betting appears to cross political party lines: 65 percent of Democrats and 59 percent of Republicans want legal betting on professional sports, while only 47 percent of Democrats and 41 percent of Republicans think it should be legal to bet on college sports.
Betting among friends or through office pools is the most popular form of sports betting, according to the survey. Thirty-six percent of Americans say they do that at least occasionally.