Gambling in America—An Overview - Public Opinion

In May 2004 the Gallup Organization conducted a nationwide poll to determine the moral acceptability of various social issues. Pollsters interviewed one thousand adults aged eighteen and older regarding their opinions. The results are shown in Table 1.2. Overall, gambling was considered morally acceptable by 66% of those asked. It tied with divorce as the social issue considered most acceptable to people. The acceptability of gambling has risen slightly since 2003 when 63% of Americans polled pronounced it morally acceptable.

The top five issues considered morally acceptable by conservatives and liberals are detailed in Table 1.3. Gambling was considered morally acceptable by 58% of self-described conservatives and 73% of self-described liberals, a difference of 15 percentage points.

Gambling among conservatives was a high-profile issue in 2003 when media reports announced that William J. Bennett had lost as much as $8 million gambling at Las Vegas casinos over the previous decade. Bennett was a well-known conservative politician and author who served as Secretary of Education under President Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) and as drug czar under President George H.W. Bush. Bennett also wrote the best-selling book The Book of Virtues with lessons and stories about

TABLE 1.3

Public opinion on the acceptability of social issues by political ideology, May 2004
SOURCE: Adapted from Lydia Saad, "Percent Saying Morally Acceptable by Political Ideology," in The Cultural Landscape: What's Morally Acceptable, The Gallup Organization, June 22, 2004, http://www.gallup.com/content/default.aspx?ci=12061 (accessed June 22, 2004). Copyright © 2004 by The Gallup Organization. Reproduced by permission of The Gallup Organization.
	Morally acceptable to conservatives %
The death penalty	74
Medical testing on animals	68
Buying and wearing clothing made of animal fur	68
Gambling	58
Divorce	57
	Morally acceptable to liberals %
Divorce	82
Sex between an unmarried man and woman	79
Homosexual behavior	74
Medical research using stem cells obtained from human embryos	74
Gambling	73

teaching children the importance of self-discipline, work, honesty, and other moral characteristics. Liberals and some conservative critics accused Bennett of taking a tough stance against many social and moral issues while indulging his multimillion-dollar gambling habit. In response Bennett publicly admitted that he had gambled too much and pledged to stop gambling.

In August 2003 Gallup polled 517 teenagers aged thirteen to seventeen years about their views regarding various social issues. Gambling was considered morally acceptable by 61% of those asked. This issue ranked third in moral acceptability behind downloading music for free on the Internet (83%) and divorce (67%).

The latest comprehensive poll on gambling attitudes was performed by the Gallup Organization in 1999. A randomly selected national sample of 1,523 adults (aged eighteen and up) and 501 teenagers (aged thirteen to seventeen) were asked a variety of questions about gambling. Results showed that 63% of adults and 52% of teenagers approved of legal gambling or betting in general. Among those adults who approved of legal gambling, 25% expressed strong approval, and among adult gambling opponents, 21% expressed strong disapproval.

The respondents were asked to give the one or two most important reasons for their approval or disapproval of legal gambling. For adults, the freedom and right to choose their leisure activities was the most important reason they approved of gambling, followed closely by the fun and entertainment aspect of gambling. For teenagers who approved of gambling, fun and entertainment were of paramount interest. Adults and teenagers who disapproved of gambling primarily did so because they believed that gambling ruins people's lives and financial well being. The adults in the group also believed strongly that gambling is addictive.

When asked about specific types of gambling, a majority of adults indicated approval for lotteries, bingo, casinos, and offtrack betting on horse races. Gambling on video poker machines at local establishments and betting on professional sports received less support from adults. All six of these gambling activities were approved by a majority of the teenagers.

Adults and teenagers showed far less support for legalized Internet gambling. Only 20% of adults approved of legalized gambling using the Internet. Support was somewhat higher (33%) among teenagers. A vast majority of respondents (76% of adults and 70% of teens) believed it was easy for teenagers to use the Internet to gamble. A majority of adults (57%) and teenagers (63%) thought that the Internet had increased gambling among teenagers.

One argument often leveled against gambling is that it is harmful to the work ethic—the attitude that hard and productive work is a worthwhile endeavor. According to the 1999 Gallup poll, 43% of adults and 58% of teenagers believed that gambling seriously damages people's respect for the value of hard work. Fewer people (36% of adults and 33% of teenagers) believed that the legal gambling industry is fundamentally based on taking advantage of poor people.

Americans were nearly evenly split on the philosophical argument that gambling is an issue of freedom. The 1999 Gallup poll showed that 47% of adults and 51% of teenagers believed that gambling should remain legal "to preserve American freedom, regardless of the problems it may cause."

Practical Issues

Besides the moral and ethical ideas that people have about gambling, there are also more down-to-earth issues, such as the role of gambling in crime, government, and politics. Gallup's 1999 poll indicated that many people still linked gambling with organized crime. The survey showed that 50% of adults agreed that legalizing gambling limits the involvement of organized crime. Forty-seven percent disagreed. Teenagers were slightly less prone to believe that organized crime involvement is limited by legalized gambling activities—42% agree, while 56% disagree.

The survey respondents were also concerned about a connection between legalized gambling and corruption among government officials. Among adults, 42% feared that the legal gambling industry is responsible for serious government corruption. Half of the teenagers surveyed also shared this view.