Poll shows Americans’ growing concern over influence of sports gambling

Americans are increasingly concerned about the growing influence of the sports gambling industry and remain wary of its effect on the games they watch, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll. These negative trends cut across almost all groups – including, notably, the most ardent sports fans and bettors themselves.
Overall, 36% of Americans say the increasing number of states allowing people to bet on sports is “a bad thing” – up from 23% in 2022 – while the share of those saying it is “a good thing” declined from 23% to 14%. Roughly half of Americans (49%) are neutral on the question of good versus bad, down from 54% three years ago.
The results of the Post-UMD poll – which took place in the aftermath of gambling scandals in MLB and the NBA earlier this year – confirm similar shifts in viewpoint seen in other polling in the years since a 2018 Supreme Court ruling opened the floodgates for legalized sports betting. Thirty-nine states plus the District of Columbia now permit sports wagering in at least some form.
Among respondents to the Post-UMD poll who bet on sports in the past five years, the share expressing negative views is smaller than within the overall group but growing sharply, with 20% saying the increasing availability of betting is “bad,” up from just 3% in 2022. Among frequent sports viewers, the share expressing that view has nearly tripled, from 12% to 34%. And among respondents ages 18 to 34 – the group most likely to bet regularly on sports – concern has nearly doubled, from 18% to 34%.
Results are based on a survey of 1,032 American adults interviewed online and by phone Dec. 4-7 through the SSRS Opinion Panel, an ongoing survey panel recruited through random sampling of U.S. households. The final sample was weighted to U.S. population demographics and political characteristics, and it carries a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.5 percentage points. The poll was conducted by The Post and the University of Maryland’s Center for Democracy and Civic Engagement and Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism.
In terms of specific worries, a majority of Americans agreed the increase in sports betting availability makes them concerned about addiction to sports gambling (70%), the possibility of games being fixed or rigged (66%) and the potential for children gambling (64%). However, none of those concerns were up from the 2022 poll and in some cases were down. Sports bettors had similar views toward those specific issues.
The poll showed a decided split between gamblers and non-gamblers in attitudes toward the increasing discussion of betting during sports television coverage, with 51% of those who placed a sports bet within the past year saying such discussion makes sports “more interesting” but with only 9% of non-gamblers agreeing.
The Post-UMD poll asked specifically about “prop” bets – those placed on something other than the game outcome, such as individual player stats or in-game events – but a majority (57%) were unfamiliar with the term. Fewer than 3 in 10 (27%) say such bets should be disallowed, while 23% say they should be allowed and 49% have no opinion. By contrast, Americans say bets on the outcome of a game should be permitted by a margin of 41% to 24%.
Recent scandals involving Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz and Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier and others have centered around prop bets placed on those athletes’ specific actions. In the wake of the Guardians scandal, MLB announced an agreement with sportsbooks to cap wagers on certain pitch-level prop bets to $200 and exclude them from multi-bet “parlays.”
The public, however, does not differentiate much between the relative harm of prop bets versus more traditional outcome-based wagers, with roughly 6 in 10 Americans saying both types of bets are at least somewhat likely to lead to sporting events being fixed or rigged.
The Post-UMD poll, as well as polling by other outlets showing similar sentiments, arrives as the multibillion-dollar sports gambling industry faces increased scrutiny from Congress. Last month, the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation said it would investigate MLB in the wake of the Guardians betting scandal, saying widespread gambling had led to an “integrity crisis” in American sports.