Poll: Georgians Support VLT Gambling to Fund HOPE

Fifty-six percent of Georgians favor video lottery terminals in a casino-style environment to fund education, according to a recent 11Alive poll.

7 Comments

‹ Back to Article

new

Embed | Share

From Norcross Patch

A gambling complex is being proposed for the community.

Photos (1)

Photos

A gambling complex is being proposed for the community.

Credit Timothy Darnell

Upload Photos and Videos

A recent poll by 11Alive found that a majority of Georgians support video lottery terminals in a casino-style environment to help fund the HOPE scholarship and pre-kindergarten.

Out of the 1,292 registered Georgia voters polled, 56 percent said they favored the use of VLTs. Widespread support was found across all ages, genders and political parties, including conservatives and Republican voters. Thirty-four percent said they opposed it, and 11 percent were unsure.

Do you favor casino-style VLTs for funding education? Tell us in the comments.

The poll was released Tuesday, a week before the Republican Primary, which features the ballot question, "Should Georgia have casino gambling with funds going to education?"

A similar question is also on the Democratic ballot, which reads, "Would you support Casino gambling in Gwinnett County?"

Atlanta developer Dan O’Leary, who has proposed a $1-billion gambling complex in the Norcross area that would include VLTs, did not advocate for the question to be placed on the ballot, according to a press release from O'Leary Partners. When the primary ballots were first released, he called the Republican Primary question "flawed" and said it doesn't accurately ask voters about his project.

O'Leary presented the project at the Georgia Lottery Board meeting in April to try to gain the approval of VLT use, but the board essentially shot it down.

“The polls results show what we have known for years: Georgians support expanding the Georgia Lottery to increase revenue for the HOPE scholarship and pre-kindergarten programs," O'Leary said Tuesday in the press release. "Particularly, this poll confirms that support is widespread and would be even more so if the ballot question was asked correctly."

Conducted by SurveyUSA, the 11Alive poll results are:

	Support casino-style VLTs	Oppose casino-style VLTs	Undecided
Democrats	64 percent	23 percent	13 percent
Republicans	52 percent	40 percent	8 percent
Independents	51 percent	38 percent	11 percent
Conservatives	48 percent	44 percent	8 percent
Moderates	59 percent	30 percent	10 percent
Liberals	63 percent	21 percent	15 percent

To view the entire poll results, visit the Web page at 11Alive.com.

What do you think about these poll results? Do you support the use of video lottery terminals in a casino-style environment to fund education? Tell us in the comments.

See also:

Don’t miss any Norcross news. Subscribe to Norcross Patch’s free newsletter, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Related Topics: Ballot, Dan O'Leary, Republican primary, and gambling complex

Thanks. We'll email you the next time we update this story.

Sarah Bakhtiari

11:48 am on Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Do these poll results surprise you?

csb

12:22 pm on Wednesday, July 25, 2012

NO, i do not support the casinos in atlanta. It can bring more crime to the area & encourage gambling to our youth & increase gambling addiction probelm. Often the monies they say its for doesnt much go to the company that they said it would. It can be a way for certain people in the GA state,to try to get more money to funnel off in their own interests, like they have done with other funds. Bringing a casino to Atlanta most likely will bring & attract more people involved with crime,possible prostitution,drugs,(gangsters into heavy gambling & violence),alcohol,more unsafe driving situations in atlanta..It will most likely make atlanta eventually a much less desireable town to live in or visit & will make atlanta more unsafe..Do not put in casinos in Atlanta!!

Alexander

12:51 pm on Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Personally the poll does not surprise me. I can understand the attraction of VLT gambling for Georgia voters, but the problem tends to be with the location of the complex and the locals who will be forced to live with complex daily. I would like to see 11Alive poll the surrounding cities (and not just all GA voters, their article never stated what locations their sample size exactly came from) that would be affected by Dan O’Leary’s project since his project is the spearhead for VLT gambling in Georgia. IMO that type poll would better reflect real support for VLT gambling and I feel that 11Alive’s poll gave them a good headline, but that’s where the benefit of their polling stops at.

csb

1:33 pm on Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Good note alexander..
On a different note- my opinion of different aspects are: They should make a constructive way to bring funds to Atlanta & Hope,not a destructive one.Often the down side of gambling easily out weighs any benefit we would get,especially because lately,repeatedly funds havent gone where they said they would or not the amt. that they said either,plus the type of clientele it can attract & what it can do to the neighborhood by bringing in crime & things that often go along with gambling. The casino should not be put in atlanta & it doesnt out weigh the benefits at all, in fact-could easily give us a worse situation by making streets unsafer & bringing more types of crime to us & gambling isnt a good example for our youth.

Rez Patch

5:59 pm on Wednesday, July 25, 2012

1. there is no positive correlation between casinos and increased crime. it's a myth.

2. if you're against people spending their money on entertainment they enjoy, why don't you shut down the Braves too?

3. Just because something can be abused does not mean it should be illegal. I eat too much very often and it's a poor example to kids everywhere, but somehow, it's legal.

4. If the neighboring people don't like it, they can move. It's a private business's right to do what it wants to do on its property (within reason obviously).