WBUR Poll: Uptick in casino support after decision to place question on ballot

View full story, with audio.
View topline
View crosstabs From WBUR;

A week after the state’s highest court cleared the way for a repeal of the casino law to go on the November ballot, a new WBUR poll suggests that gambling proponents would begin such a highly anticipated voter initiative with clear popular support.

Fifty-six percent of respondents said they approve of locating casinos in Massachusetts, while 38 percent said they disapprove. Six percent said they don’t know, or refused to answer.

The 18-percentage-point margin of support for casinos is larger than in recent WBUR surveys. In March, 46 percent of respondents said they back casinos, to 43 percent opposed. And then in May, the margin supporting casinos was 10 points — 49 percent to 39 percent.

“Polls are noisy, and we’ll know as more polls come out whether or not the [Supreme Judicial Court] decision was the high water mark, or is this the beginning of a new trend?” said pollster Steve Koczela, whose MassINC Polling Group conducts surveys for WBUR.

The poll also found that the remaining Democratic gubernatorial candidates have improved their margins against Charlie Baker. Attorney General Martha Coakley has grown her lead over baker to 12 points Baker 41 percent to 28 percent, while Treasurer Steve Grossman has pulled within two points of Baker, at 30-28, and Don Berwick trails Baker (31-19), but by a smaller margin than in previous polls. All three Democrats have leads over Mark Fisher, the other Republican gubernatorial candidate.