A new Washington Post-UMD poll released on 12/15/25 shows that concern about sports betting has grown since 2022. Many are not confident that pro sports games are free from the influence of gambling.
As sports betting has expanded, more Americans have noticed. And a growing number of Americans are deciding that sports betting is “a bad thing.”
From commercials with high profile actors and athletes to weaving betting advice, and even betting options (such as parlays), into sports talk shows, sports betting is increasingly part of sports culture. Our new survey shows that the Americans who watch sports have noticed (85% weighed in on whether discussion of sports betting changed their level of interest in the sports they watch, with 15% saying they haven’t seen discussion of sports betting). The high level of awareness of sports betting might be an encouraging sign for leagues and sports media companies.
But a number of results from our latest project with UMD’s Shirley Povich Center for Sports Journalism and The Washington Post might start to sound alarms. When Americans reflected on the changing policy landscape, 36% said the increasing number of states making sports gambling available is “a bad thing,” up from 23% in 20221. That increase is fueled, in part, by the most engaged fans – the increase in this negative assessment of sports gambling was 22 percentage points among those who watch sports several times a week and 17 points among sports bettors. Policy makers, league executives, media companies, and betting companies alike should take notice—especially if the percentage of Americans who think the growth of sports betting is “a bad thing” continues to rise, rather than level off.
Discussion of sports betting hasn’t done much to change interest in sports. Concerns about integrity are widespread.
With regard to interest in sports, for many Americans the discussion of sports betting hasn’t made a difference (46%), and the percentage who have become more interested (19%) is washed out by the percentage who have become less interested (20%). This is a surprising result, and suggests sports media companies haven’t yet found their sweet spot in terms of the quantity and/or quality of their sports betting coverage.
But most striking is that a sizable portion of the American public expresses doubts about the integrity of pro sports games. While 56% are confident that the games are competitive and the outcomes are not influenced by gambling, 44% are not confident. I don’t make predictions or set over-under lines, but if I did I would have been way off on this one. A 56% to 44% margin might be a comfortable win in a race for political office, but in this context it seems like a warning sign.
What’s next? Understanding the impact of prop bets on public perceptions of integrity.
Recent scandals involving rigging of “prop bets” on specific actions during games (i.e. a pitcher throwing a ball or strike on a particular pitch) have rocked the sports world. Our results on prop bets provide important baselines for understanding how this type of sports gambling impacts our culture. As more people become familiar with prop bets, it will be interesting to see whether support for allowing prop bets and/or concerns about their potential influence on the outcomes of games change. The leagues currently seem more concerned about prop bets than bets on the outcomes of games undermining the integrity of competition. But the results from our poll suggest the public has significant concerns with betting on the overall outcome as well (61% of the public thinks it is at least somewhat likely that betting on the final outcome of games can lead to games being fixed or rigged, with 60% saying that about prop bets).
The upshot? Changes in sports betting policies have dramatically shifted a key part of our culture.
Sports are an incredibly important part of our culture. Policy changes across the American states have made sports betting more widely available, leading to a number of changes in this part of our culture. We look forward to continuing to study the ways that policy and sports shape one another.
1Headline at the time: Support for legal sports betting grows, Post-UMD poll finds (July 7, 2022). Compare that to the headline for The Washington Post article about this poll Poll shows Americans’ growing concern over influence of sports gambling (December 15, 2025).
