Last year at this time, there was really not much in the way of legal American sports betting. A punter who wanted to put a little action on a college or professional football game he had to go to Nevada or the black market.
Of course all that changed when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the state of New Jersey and put the decision regarding regulated sports betting in the hands of the states. Since then, there’s been an avalanche of legislative activity as states from West Virginia to New Jersey to Delaware to Mississippi moved quickly to bring sports wagering to their citizens.
Americans, it turns out, were quite eager to visit the sportsbook. That idea was confirmed this week when a study by the conducted by the Washington Post and the University of Maryland found that 53 percent of registered voters are in favoring of bringing regulated sports betting to their local casinos. Of course not everyone is so keen on keeping wagers off the black market, 37 percent of registered voters are opposed to the plan. (Another 10 percent had no opinion on the matter.)
Results of the survey, as reported on by the Charleston Gazette-Mail, revealed a not-too-surprising gender gap when it comes to support for legal wagering. Just 46 percent of women support it, while 67 percent of men are on board.
But no matter how badly Maryland men want their chance to lay some action on the Orioles or Ravens, they’re still going to have to wait. Local media says it will likely be another two years before legislation legalizing sports betting passes through the Maryland legislature.