Statewide poll: Voters reject legalizing sports betting

While the Florida Legislature is considering legalizing sports betting, a recent Inweekly/Political Matrix poll found few voters across the state support it.

Do you support the idea of legalizing sports betting in Florida?

Responses: 773Total%
Yes17522.6
No45058.2
Undecided14819.1

More than two dozen other states are considering proposals to authorize sports betting after the U.S. Supreme Court last May ruled the federal ban on state-sanctioned sports betting is unconstitutional. Eight states have already approved it.

Florida Senate President Bill Galvano has named sports betting as one of his priorities.

“It’s an activity that’s taking place presently, and if we can regulate it properly and have dollars come in, then we should do that,” Galvano told The News Service of Florida last week.

Our poll found that voters prefer letting county referendums, not state lawmakers, decide on a county-by-county basis whether sports betting be allowed in individual counties.

Response: 773Total%
The state legislature should decided20226.1
Local referendums, county-by-county basis43456.1
Undecided13717.7

Methodology

The persons sampled were likely Florida voters with a voting score of 100% for the general election cycles. The voters were called using an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system during the hours of 3-5 p.m.on March 10. The Margin of Error for this study is +/- 4.5% with a confidence level of 95%. Please see details on the following pages.