Poll Results: 51.2% In Favour Of Casino Gaming
According to a recent poll by Profiles of Bermuda, while those who oppose the introduction of casino gambling have remained essentially at 43% since March of 2012, support has increased to the point where a slight majority of voters are now in favour of casino gambling [51.2% compared to the 45.6% who supported it in 2012.]
The shift has come from voters who were unsure in 2012 now giving the nod to casino gambling, with 6.1% compared to 11.1% who were unsure in 2012. The Company noted that the results fall within the margin of error, plus or minus 5%, which means that actual voter sentiment could be much closer.
Differences by Age
By age, younger voters, those between the ages of 18 and 34, were more likely to support casino gambling [63%], as were those aged between 35 and 54 [50%]. Older voters [55 and over] were more likely to oppose the introduction of casino gambling [51.1%].
Differences by Race
More than two-thirds of whites and others [neither black nor white], were in favour of having casino gambling in Bermuda [65.6% and 67.3% respectively]. On the other hand, just over half of black voters [52.5%] were opposed to casino gambling.
Differences by Sex
Nearly 6 in 10 males [58.1%] were in favour of casino gambling, with just over one-third [34.9%] opposed to it. Just under half of female voters were opposed to casino gambling [48.5%], while a similar amount [46%] supported casino gambling
Survey Notes
In explaining the poll, Profiles of Bermuda said, “There were no statistically significant differences by income. The survey was conducted among 375 voters between 20 March 2014 and 18 May 2014 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 5%.
“Some 69% of respondents were obtained by landlines, 24% by cell phones and 7% via the internet. Data for all demographics were weighted to reflect the 2010 Census. Totals in the chart may exceed 100% due to rounding.”
@bernews, can you ask Profiles (and publish) of the 375 voters polled, how many were in favour? I think that loading for demographic distributions itself may skew the data more than the 5% margin of error they claim, though I’m not sure which way…
Those results are the first graph shown.
It’s official then. At least 40% of my bredren are stupid. No wonder it’s so hard to wake up this dopey beast we call Bermuda.
so if 51.2% were in favour of independence what would make more sense
a public consensus by referendum or a unilateral act by parliament
Bring it on! and “I’ll bet ya”, it’ll benefit everyone on the Island in the short, as well as, the long run.
The people who are NOT in favour…are they in favour of non Casino gambling?
What is the difference?
Anyone can go down and bet their rent money in Mr. Bean’s den right NOW!
no wonder…..gotta eat….gotta work….gotta live …. because the alternative is to die. CASINOS NOW!!!!!!!
For once, can someone conduct a poll on our tourists and ask them if they would be in favour of casino gaming. After all, they are our customers… right?
Why are you worried. It is not your investment. The people who make the investment will do their due diligence and research as they don’t randomly throw money away.
The government is going to make the investment, so it is Malcom Raynor’s money.
There was a poll of tourists back in, I think 2009 (?) or so, which found that the majority of tourists would not like a casino, and a minority would even cease coming to Bermuda if we introduced casino gambling.
What would be better would be a poll from our key market (the US north-east and Ontario) to find out whether having a casino would make them more willing to visit, or less, or no difference – and what other things we could do (other than casinos) that would encourage them to visit.
YOUR PERSONAL AGENDA petition that took ~4 months garnered just ~2500 signatures, even with its accesibility and wealth of media exposure.
Any business that invests in a venture does it’s own due diligence and assesment. If there is no interest in their opinion , then they will not invest.
Why don’t you leave it to the people who put their money where their mouth is Starling. what makes you think you know who the target customers are… are you a Hotel or Casino expert ?
I’m a voter in Bermuda and entitled to hold my governments accountable. I don’t need to be an expert in anything to do that.
I have no agenda regarding casino gambling itself – the petition was for Government to honour it’s election promise to hold a referendum on casino gambling. The petition was neither for or against casino gambling.
As for the petition, well, we’re in the midst of doing a post-mortem on how it could’ve been done better, and that’s not really the subject of this thread I think.
Whether an investor built hotel and casino is a huge sucess or failure the the problem or joy of the investors.
It is private enterprise !!!!
The Regulation by Government is what the Govt is responsible for.
The risk is the Private Investors, the government don’t have accountability for success or failure of the business.
As a Bermudian I regard any major change as having a profound impact on the way I live. That includes who invests in Bermuda and how. The notion that I should just leave it to the people with the money strikes me as a dangerously naive way to handle such an important matter.
In my experience leaving it to the people with the money usually winds up with me having even less of the money, so thanks all the same but I think we should just keep asking questions about just exactly how this cow is going to produce the cash.
Ask yourself how will individual Bermudians benefit before we rush in to a business about which we know nothing.
Ask yourself if government looks like they have a plan for how this will benefit individual Bermudians.
Casino gambling looks like an easy road to 1980′s success again, but it’s not. If we want that we may actually have to work for it. *GASP*
One more thing. If you can’t find the sucker at the table it’s you.
Construction and maintance jobs, hotel and casino Jobs, reinject life and tourists into St Georges, dollars being brought in and spent in stores, restaurants. Tax revenue for govt funds, contributions to pension funds.
Just off the top of my head.
No those dollars will be lost at the tables. House rules/House wins – oh wait…you thought the casino owners were going do give us some of their profits beyond what the government takes/taxes?
#Sand might be right about you….
Your petition was a success, it reached everyone. everyone knew about it and had access to it.
It could have not been done better. You excelled yourselves. Credit where credit is due.
Government is in power to rule. If we need a referendum before anything is changed why then do we have a government in power? Let us then have a referendum every couple months with changes that need to be made
I was surveyed 2-3 times when I first started coming to Bermuda 4 years ago. Little old man in Bermuda shorts in the airport departure area, his questions tried to lead me into saying I was for casinos and I kept telling him I am against casinos.
makes no sense to fly to Bermuda to gamble with all the casinos on the East coast of the USA (Bermuda’s target market). internet gaming is the way to go but the government does not want to listen.
So you are for gaming, but internet gaming, not casinos.
yeah, I’m sure you’re a “tourist”.
Malcolm a study was done, and tourist said, they were not in favor of casinos. The plan is to attract tourist who might be. Will it work time will tell. I hope it does.
We are trying to get a whole new type of visitor here. The ones that have been coming will more than likely continue to come. Polling existing tourists is only one aspect to the equation, we need to appeal to a whole new segment that up until now have overlooked bermuda in the past. New high end hotels with gaming will help drive the business that bermuda has let go for 20 years.
“Bring it”
The poll has a margin of error of +/- 5%.
Those in favour could range from 46.2% to 56.2% of the total population
Those not in favour could range from 37.7% to 47.7% of the total population.
From this poll we can also say that it is possible that more people oppose casino gambling than support it. (Both 47.7% for the oppose and 46.2% for the pro are possible.)
The poll simply shows that its too close to call.
This is a very poorly written poll. Pathetic actually.
I don’t get it, can someone please explain.
If a developer wants to throw done tens of millions of dollars to build hotel/casino….why should we stop them?
I am tired of hearing people say ‘it wont work, so lets not do it’. Any investor will do their own homework and if they decide to risk their money, then why should we stop them?
Also, if a local wants to invest money and build a casino in town, or anywhere else, why should we stop them? We are a capitalist society and should encourage new ventures and risk taking.
A business should not be prohibited from operating simply because ‘people dont think it will work’. I am sure if you took a poll 60 years ago and asked residents if our tiny Island can become a financial and reinsurance hub, I am sure the majority of people would have said no.
Because there is such a thing as corporate social responsibility, that companies do not operate in a vacuum, but in society, which affects us all. Given the opportunity, companies would gladly do whatever they want to make profits, as long as it’s “with their money”. And that used to be the case. But we realize now that there are other stakeholders affected by a company’s actions, which is why policy changes such as these are everyone’s business.
In the words of Ganga Man: Bring it, Bring it.
I’m a gambler, and do support gambling on the island. Sadly, I don’t think gambling will help us that much. I wonder if people understand the type of numbers we need to sustain a casino, much less 2 or 3. I hope people understand that for the casino to have any chance of survival, they need tourist and locals to gamble. I just don’t think we have the numbers to support casinos in BDA. But I hope is works, because I will be in there lol
OBA, for crying out loud….Just do it….no need for a darn survey…
54% want herb legalized,
That wasn’t the question, but nice try