Not long ago, we discussed a poll by OnlinePokerReport that showed that over 60% of Americans strongly approve of or are indifferent to online poker. And now, yet another respectable survey has been released that shows how Americans are in favor of legal and regulated internet poker.
Reason.com ran the poll and they asked: “Do you think the government should prohibit people from gambling in online poker games, or should the government allow people to do this?”
The survey reached 1,011 adults, with 506 people answering by mobile phones and 505 answering by landline telephones. Out of those who chose to answer the question, 65% of the respondents were in favor of online poker while just 32% believe the government should prohibit it.
One thing worth noting here is that the word “government” is a little broad in the text of this survey. After all, the question doesn’t specify whether the United States government or individual state governments should allow people to play online poker. But even with the broad usage of government, Reason’s survey seems legitimate enough to consider this yet another public vote of support for internet poker.
Aside from just showing how many people were in favor or against online poker, Reason also broke the statistics down even further. Here’s a quick look at some of the most interesting findings from the poll:
- On a partisan level, 66% of Republicans favored internet poker while only 58% of Democrats voted the same way. The group that gave the largest vote of confidence were non-partisan ‘Independents who lean Republican.’ 75% of them voted that the government should allow online poker.
- There was a large divide when it came to the ages of people voting. Both the ‘Less than 35′ and ’35-55’ age groups voted 70% in favor of cyber poker. Out of those who were over 55 years old, only 55% were in favor of online poker while 39% believe that the government should prohibit it.
- In terms of income, just 56% of those making less than $30,000 a year voted for online poker. The highest group in favor of poker was those who make $60,000-$110,000 a year, as 73% of them voted that poker should be allowed.
- Only 56% of those with a high school degree or less believe that the government should allow online poker. People with some college (70% in favor), college graduates (76%) and post graduate school attendees (73%) all look pretty favorably on regulated online poker.
Judging from Reason’s fairly small sample size, it seems that internet poker support goes up along with income and education. So it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that more educated people are able to look past the b.s. and lies about online poker leading to widespread addiction. But if this is indeed the case, why are many US politicians still staunchly opposed to regulated internet poker!?