Poll Shows US Almost Unanimously Wanting Legal Online Gambling

US News and World Report ran an article today featuring the debate between Barney Frank and Spencer Bachus over the regulation of online gambling. Each Congressman expressed his point in a written, prepared statement, and the news organization then included an interactive poll.

The poll consists of one simple question, "Should online gambling be legalized?" As of mid-afternoon, respondents in favor of legal Internet gaming were 97.13 percent. Those opposed to legal online casinos, and favoring a ban such as the UIGEA, numbered 2.87 percent.

The results are similar to the poll conducted months ago by USA Today, which ended with voters in favor of legal online gaming well over ninety percent. The polls aren't controlled, and therefore not a scientific survey.

But some conclusions can still be drawn, says OCA gaming analyst Sherman Bradley. The demographic represented by readers of US News and USA Today clearly thinks overwhelmingly that online gambling is no threat, and making it illegal is an impingement on personal liberty.

"A good argument could be made that the readers of these two periodicals make up the moderate, centrist group so often ignored by US politicians. While the results of the same poll in "Your Daily Bible" may find differently, that view would be as far from normality in US culture as Pravda."

Further, says Bradley, anyone who responded after reading the arguments presented by the two Representatives obviously was unconvinced by Bachus's "deliberate distortions and twisted reasoning."