
A huge majority of people are opposed to the government’s proposed casino-entertainment complex and its plan to legalise online gambling, according to an opinion survey by the National Institute of Development Administration.
Asked for their thoughts on the development of integrated entertainment complexes complete with a casino, 59.19% of respondents said they opposed both the complex and casino, 28.93% supported both, 8.63% supported the complex but without a casino, 1.68% had no comment and 1.60% supported a casino only.
Asked if they agreed with the government’s push to legalise online gambling, 58.32% said they strongly disagreed, 19.92% strongly agreed, 11.45% somewhat agreed and 10.31% somewhat disagreed.
As for public referendums for the construction of casino-entertainment complexes and online gambling legalisation, the respondents’ answers varied as follows:
51.07% said they disagreed with holding referendums for both the casino-entertainment complex and online gambling legalisation
37.86% agreed with holding referendums for both schemes
5.11% agreed with organising a referendum for the casino-entertainment complex project only
3.89% agreed with organising a referendum for online betting legalisation only
1.99% had no comment
0.08% did not answer
The Nida Poll was conducted by telephone interviews on Jan 20-21 with 1,310 people aged over 18 of various levels of education, incomes and occupations throughout the country.