Support for State-Run Lotteries Is Declining
While state lotteries across the country scramble for ways to attract customers, Americans seem to be less enthusiastic about the government-run gambling operations.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 47% of American Adults still believe states should run lotteries to generate revenue. But that’s continuing a downward trend from 56% in October 2009 and 52% in August of last year.
Twenty-seven percent (27%) now oppose state-run lotteries, and another 26% are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here.)
Forty-six percent (46%) of adults continue to believe it is better for a state to run a lottery than it is for the state to let private companies run them and generate income taxes. Twenty-eight percent (28%) prefer letting private companies operate state lotteries, but 26% are undecided.
Thirty-two percent (32%) of Americans now think there are too many competing state lotteries, compared to 27% who felt that way in October 2009. Only 10% think there are not enough lotteries, while 38% say the number of lotteries is about right.
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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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