Poll Finds 44 Percent Want Election Betting Banned, 30 Percent Want It Legal

A Politico poll conducted by Public First from May 17 to 19 found that 44 percent of respondents believe betting on election results should be illegal. Three in 10 said the practice should be legal, while a quarter said they did not know. The survey of 2,035 U.S.

Adults had a margin of error of 2.4 percentage points and was weighted by age, race, gender, geography and educational attainment. Forty-five percent of Trump voters and 50 percent of Harris voters said election betting should be illegal. Over half of all respondents said sports betting on prediction markets should be legal.

Forty-five percent said wagering on awards shows should be legal and 46 percent said betting on the weather should be legal. Twenty-seven percent said wagering on potential comments from the president and other newsmakers should be legal, while 40 percent said it should be illegal and 32 percent said they did not know.

Polymarket users placed $3.2 billion in bets on the 2024 presidential contest between President Trump and former Vice President Kamala Harris, with a majority placed on Trump.

Last month federal prosecutors charged Google employee Michele Spagnuolo with insider trading on Polymarket using nonpublic data on the company’s “Year in Search” list for 2025. In April the Justice Department alleged that U.S. Army soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke placed wagers on Polymarket regarding the operation to capture former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro using details from the planning of the raid.

The Trump administration has filed suit to block multiple states’ attempts to regulate prediction markets, arguing the Commodity Futures Trading Commission alone has authority over the platforms.