There has been a lot of talk about the legalization of gambling in both Canada and the United States. As the research companies begin to do their polls to test the water of the consumers, what they are actually finding out is that these consumers are confused about the process of online casino gambling and how it will effect them. Ipsos Reid, one of the polling companies in Canada that has a wide range of contacts throughout the countryside has discovered that there is more confusion now than there was years ago at the last testing.
Some of the confusion with online casino gambling is that many of the people in the United States and Canada don’t even realize that it is illegal. Maybe with the fact that free sites allow you to gamble without spending any real money could lead to some of the confusion, but a 2007 survey noted that 41% of Americans and 28% of Canadians didn’t even know online casino gambling was illegal. The latest poll done in 2010 showed that 37% of Americans and 23% of Canadians still didn’t know that online casino gambling was illegal.
Although many didn’t know that online gambling was illegal, they were very clear about the fact that they though it should be legal and have strong regulations that protect the customers. These results came from a polled group of 1006 in the US and 1032 in Canada and lasted from January 4th through January 7th, 2010. The major marker showed that 67% of Americans and 55% of Canadians thought that the legalization of gambling in these regions should be allowed and that they should be regulated by their respective governments. The study also revealed that the United States has major concerns that the online gambling be regulated by the government either federal or state, but the Canadians want the ability to gamble online legally, regardless of whether or not they come up with sufficient protective regulations.
