Fifty-five per cent of Canadians – but only 49% of Americans – favoured legislation allowing internet gambling, according to an online study carried out by market research firm Ipsos Reid.
The Canadians said they approved providing government regulations were in place. South of the border, more Americans, 55%, agreed that the federal government should take charge of regulating such activities should they be authorised.
Ipsos Reid surveyed 1006 people in the US and 1032 in Canada with an estimated margin of error of 3.05%. Among Canadians, 67% believed that the Federal Government should regulate online gambling while only 33% said that provincial authorities should do so. In another difference of opinion, 45% of Americans said that their state should oversee internet betting.
The study found that citizens were less aware of the fact that online gambling is technically illegal in both Canada and the US. In 2007, similar research found that 41% of Americans and 28% of Canadians said they knew, but the new study has seen these numbers drop to 37% of Americans and 23% of Canadians.
“Governments appear to be doing a poor job at informing citizens that online gambling is in fact illegal,” a spokesman for Ipsos Reid said.
The 2007 research found that 48% of Canadians favoured allowing regulated online gambling as long as suitable regulations were in place, against 46% of Americans.
“We see that Americans are more concerned with regulation than Canadians,” the spokesman said.
20 July, 2011