Is it possible that New Jersey lawmakers legalized the wrong thing? Well, a recent poll conducted by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind seems to indicate that residents of the Garden State prefer weed over online gambling if it meant that they could get their hands – legally – on the good stuff.
According to the said poll, 41 percent of respondents said that they’d support smoking marijuana recreationally in the event that it was legalized in the state. As for online gambling, the poll results revealed that just 32 percent would take their gambling online. And that’s even knowing that online gambling is already legal in New Jersey.
Apparently, the results of the poll has PublicMind director Krista Jenkins concerned about the acceptance by residents towards online gambling moving forward. “The public’s attitude was, for several years, warming up to online gambling,” Jenkins said. “But there has been a clear change in direction now that the practice has actually been legalized. Part of the public has always shown deep reluctance to make gambling so accessible in their own homes. Now that it is in fact legal, they may be more concerned than ever.”
A big reason why residents are becoming colder to online gambling is the bombardment of advertising New Jersey casinos are exposing the state too, as if these casinos are trying to shove the fact that the service is already legal in the state and everyone should give it a spin. Or ten thousand of ’em.
The PublicMind poll also found out that the residents opposed to online gambling have risen from 46 percent last March to an alarming 57 percent. That spike in percentage, according to Donald Hoover, a senior lecturer of hospitality management at the university, can be attributed to residents discovering the online gambling isn’t all it was promised to be”.
On the flip side, marijuana really doesn’t need no introduction and residents of the state have become increasingly aware of Colorado and Washington’s recent legalization of the drug for recreational use. Likewise, those who have had experience with the joint are more likely to support getting rid of its scarlet letter. Hoover was quick to point out that while a majority of the public remain opposed to legalizing marijuana for recreational use, a shift in public opinion is gradually taking shape in the state and that legislators are likely to keep their eyes and ears open to the possibility of taking that step.
It probably won’t happen until a clear 50-50 split (or something legitimately close to it) on public opinion is set, but the recent PublicMind poll shows if both online gambling and marijuana are legal in the state, more people would support the latter than they would the former.
