While Maryland voters likely will have to wait at least two years to decide whether to legalize sports gambling, a narrow majority of the state’s voters approve of adding lawful sports betting today, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll.
The poll found 53 percent of registered voters are in favor of legal professional sports gambling, with 37 percent opposed, and 10 percent of voters having no opinion. Those with strong opinions on the issue were about evenly divided, with 26 percent strongly disapproving of legal sports betting, and 24 percent strongly approving.
Since a Supreme Court ruling in May struck down a federal law barring sports gambling from all but a handful of states, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Mississippi and West Virginia have legalized sports betting, and lawmakers in the District and Virginia have expressed interest in considering the issue in 2019.
Voters in Maryland probably will have to wait until at least November 2020.
To legalize sports betting in Maryland, the state General Assembly would need to approve adding a ballot question, and then a majority of voters would need to support the measure. A Maryland bill calling for a voter referendum on sports gambling passed the House of Delegates but not the Senate this year, making it unlikely that the state’s voters will get a referendum on the issue before 2020.