NC voters support sports betting but don’t like prediction markets, new poll finds

North Carolinians are generally okay with sports betting, but a majority wants the state to ban prediction markets, according to a Meredith College poll released Tuesday. 

The North Carolina General Assembly legalized online sports betting in 2024. 

At 51%, just over half of registered voters said they were satisfied with the level of state regulation of sports gambling. Only 11% said they were dissatisfied, while 38% said they didn’t know. 

The survey shows far fewer voters are comfortable with prediction markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. Two-thirds of registered voters said they would support state legislation banning such markets, while 24% said they should be legal in N.C., and 8% said they didn’t know. 

At the same time, most registered voters in North Carolina don’t have much familiarity with prediction markets, according to the report. Fifteen percent said they were very familiar, 38% said somewhat familiar, and 47% said they were unfamiliar. 

Even though sports betting had a higher level of acceptance in the survey, respondents expressed concerns about its effects on specific groups of people. 

A majority of respondents, 58%, said they were concerned about illegal sports betting by individuals under 21, while 32% were unconcerned. 

For sports betting by young adults between the ages of 21 and 30, public opinion is divided: 47% of respondents expressed some concern and 43% expressed some level of unconcern. 

Stein order bans NC workers from insider betting on prediction markets

Exactly half of the participants said they were concerned about the impact of sports betting on college athletes, while 36% expressed little or no concern. 

“Concerns were substantially greater when questions focused on underage gambling, young adults, or college athletes than when respondents evaluated sports betting in general,” Meredith Poll director David McLennan said. “This pattern suggests that residents do not simply evaluate sports betting as an entertainment activity; they also consider its broader implications for families, communities, and higher education.”

In the most recent budget, Republican legislators raised the state tax on sports betting operators from 18% to 23%. They also imposed a new 6% tax on prediction market operators in North Carolina. The disparity in the rates led some Democratic critics of the provision to suggest that sports betting would move onto predictive markets in North Carolina to increase profits.

Meredith College conducted the poll between July 1 and 8. The sample size was 1,022 registered voters, giving a credibility interval of plus or minus 3%.