North Carolinians seem willing to live with legal sports betting, but they want firmer limits around it. A July Meredith Poll found broad support for consumer protections, for funding education and treatment, and for safeguards aimed at college athletes, even as many respondents said they knew little about proposition bets or prediction markets.
The survey was fielded July 1-8 and drew 1,022 respondents, with a credibility interval of plus or minus 3%. According to the Meredith report, it was conducted in collaboration with the Center of Excellence for Gambling Addiction Policy and Practice at Addiction Professionals of North Carolina, which also sponsored the poll.
The report says residents generally separate support for legalized sports wagering from support for a regulatory framework meant to reduce its social costs. Concerns were stronger when questions focused on underage gambling, young adults or college athletes than when they dealt with sports betting in general.
Respondents generally favored dedicating part of that revenue to education, treatment and research on gambling disorders, and the report says many see gambling addiction as a public health issue that merits ongoing investment.
The poll also found support for consumer-protection measures designed to curb excessive gambling and encourage responsible betting. Meredith Poll Director David McLennan said policymakers may find public backing for deposit limits and more money for responsible-gambling initiatives.
McLennan also said education remains necessary because many respondents are unsure where help is available. The report says awareness of community resources for gambling-related problems was considerably lower than support for treatment and education.
Another clear theme was college athletes. The report says respondents placed special importance on protections meant to reduce harassment, intimidation and other negative consequences tied to legalized wagering, and it describes that as one of the broadest areas of public consensus.
The findings also point to a knowledge gap around newer betting products. While sports betting is now familiar to much of the public, many respondents said they were less familiar with proposition bets and prediction markets, and the report says younger adults and men were more familiar than older adults and women.
The poll lands in a state where sports betting has already become a major revenue source and a public-health concern. WUNC reported in March that problem-gambling hotline calls were up more than 300% since 2021, that nearly $13 billion in wagers were placed in North Carolina in 2024 and 2025, and that those bets generated more than $262 million in new tax revenue. The same report said state law sets aside $2 million a year for gambling-addiction education and treatment, a flat amount that does not rise with betting revenue, and that North Carolina's sports-betting law includes more than 40 responsible-gambling regulations.
Taken together, the poll suggests the public has moved past the question of whether sports betting should exist at all. The sharper debate now is over how tightly it should be policed, and how much the state should do to limit harm.
