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Poll Preview: How do you feel about online gambling?
The current poll is on your lottery-playing habits, since it's one of the only -- and most visible -- forms of gambling available to the general public these days. Horse races are being run around empty race tracks and are attracting large handles. But real-money online casino games are also an alternative and have been the subject of some discussion and controversy, especially in Europe where it's much more popular than here in the States, about how national lockdowns are leading to an increase in igaming, endangering already-depleted bank accounts.
Only three states in the U.S. offer legal igaming: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. All the casinos in all three states shut down on March 16 and the online numbers do seem to tell a tale. In March in New Jersey, Internet gambling win was $64.82 million, a 20% increase over February; Pennsylvania’s igaming revenues jumped to $24.27 million, a 24.5% increase over February’s $19.49 million; and Delaware's win of $514k was 58.5% higher than February’s $325k.
Online gambling was legalized in Michigan last December and is expected to be rolled out later this year. But in West Virginia, "emergency" rules have been introduced with a timeline of as little as six weeks for igaming to go live.
And of course, there's always offshore. It's not too tough to play casino games at online casinos domiciled abroad; it's also one of the uses of cryptocurrencies in lieu of credit cards (that require billing addresses, etc.).
Which leads us to the proposed selections for this poll preview. The poll is a general survey on knowledge of and attitudes about playing casino games for real money in pajamas in your bathroom or sweats on your porch. Please feel free to weigh in with your suggestions on improving the following selections, as well as your comments about igaming (which we sometimes use to improve the poll ourselves). And as always, thanks in advance for all feedback.