Cage Match For Online Gambling?
Added: June 8, 2015
You may have heard the saying that goes around about the value of statistics. More or less, the saying sounds something like…”there are lies, there are damned lies, then there are statistics”. With that in mind, listen up to what is going on in the state of Pennsylvania. As you already know, the status of online casinos and online gambling in the United States is still up in the air. Recall that on the federal level as of yet, there has been no decisive action taken one way or the other. At the same time, at the state level, some forward thinking states such as New Jersey have taken matters into their own hands and setup their very own online casino sites for their residents.
And now, the push for online gambling is starting to heat up. You probably remember that not so long ago, the giant land based casino magnate Sheldon Adelson publicly vowed to spend any amount necessary to defeat any further expansion of online gambling in the United States. One of Sheldon’s latest move was to fund a poll in the state of Pennsylvania to determine whether or not the residents really wanted online gambling or not. It will come as no big surprise to you that the results of the Sheldon funded probe indicated that the majority of Pennsylvania residents are opposed to any expansion of online gambling (online poker in this case).
But hold on there, not so fast. A newer, more recent poll conducted by none other than the Omega Group found the exact opposite. According to the Omega Group, a startlingly high 58% percent of those residents who were questioned on this issue responded that they do in fact favor and want online gambling to happen in Pennsylvania.
So what gives? What is the truth behind these two polls? Actually it is not so hard to figure this one out if you take a look at some of the questions that were posed by the Adelson survey. In terms that a pollster would use, some of the questions were, shall we say “leading questions”. In other words, the questions were precisely worded to get the answers that that Adelson intended.
In fact, state representative John Payne had this to say:”I don’t hold much credibility to the survey because of the way it was done. The entire poll is designed and orchestrated to give the answers they want”. Well there you have it, straight from someone who takes the time to find out the truth.
What does this mean for the possible expansion of online gambling in Pennsylvania? For now it is too early to say, but at least now you have seen what goes on behind closed doors.