61% Oppose Online State Lottery Sales
Many cash-strapped states are considering selling lottery tickets online to boost revenue. Some like Minnesota and New Jersey have already begun the process. But most Americans nationwide aren’t keen on the idea, perhaps because many think online gambling shouldn’t be legal.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that just 23% of American Adults favor states selling lottery tickets over the Internet. Sixty-one percent (61%) oppose online state lottery sales. Sixteen percent (16%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Fifty percent (50%) of adults believe any gambling on the Internet should be illegal, up from 37% in June 2009. Twenty-nine percent (29%) disagree, while another 21% are not sure. Americans were more evenly divided on this question last August, with 44% who felt Internet gambling should be illegal and 41% who said the opposite.
A majority (54%) of adults believe online sales would likely increase the number of people who buy lottery tickets. Just seven percent (7%) believe this would decrease the number of people participating in the lottery. One in four (25%) say the number of people buying lottery tickets would remain about the same even with them available online.
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The survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on June 13-14, 2011 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.
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