Significantly more Americans want legal sports betting, survey finds

More Americans think sports wagering should be legal compared to those who think otherwise, according to an East Carolina University (ECU) survey.

47% of the 1,152 respondents who took part in the poll from May to July 2018, agreed to a statement that gambling on professional sports should be legal. 26% disagreed, while 27% neither agreed nor disagreed.

“Current levels of public support, particularly among both self-identified Democrats and Republicans, suggest that the prospects are clearly more favorable than unfavorable for additional states, and even the federal government, to pass laws that further legalize sports gambling,” the ECU Center for Survey Research said in its report.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s lifting of the federal ban on sports betting last May has opened states to the market, though only a handful have actually passed legislation on the matter so far.