Pew Poll Shows City Residents Favor Casinos Here
A poll by the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that city residents support bringing casinos to Philadelphia by a margin of 53 percent to 41 percent who oppose the move. In addition, 60 percent support the current proposal to locate one of the two casinos planned for the city on the Delaware riverfront while 35 percent oppose that. The plan to place the second casino on East Market Street was not so popular, with just 39 percent of the respondents in favor while 57 percent are against it.
Pew Poll Shows City Residents Favor Casinos Here
Chris Brennan
A poll by the Pew Charitable Trusts shows that city residents support bringing casinos to Philadelphia by a margin of 53 percent to 41 percent. In addition, 60 percent support the current proposal to locate one of the two casinos planned for the city on the Delaware riverfront while 35 percent oppose that. The plan to place the second casino on East Market Street was not so popular, with just 39 percent of the respondents in favor while 57 percent are against it.
The Pew poll, released last week, also showed that a majority of Philadelphians opposed Mayor Nutter's plans to increase local taxes to help close a $1.4 billion gap in the city's five-year financial plan.
You can view the poll here. After the jump, you can read more from Pew about the casino issue in the poll.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – April 29, 2009
PEW SURVEY FINDS PHILADELPHIANS FAVOR BRINGING SLOT MACHINES TO CITY
Residents Support Fishtown Location, But Oppose Center City Casino Idea
(PHILADELPHIA, PA)—Philadelphians favor bringing slot-machine gambling to the city and support the plan to build a casino along the Delaware River in Fishtown. But they oppose the idea of a casino on Market Street East in Center City.
Fifty-three percent of city residents favor slot-machine gambling in Philadelphia, while 41 percent are against the idea, according to a new poll commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Philadelphia Research Initiative.
In addition, 60 percent of those surveyed support locating one of the slots parlors on the Delaware River in Fishtown, the proposed site of the SugarHouse casino; 35 percent are opposed to this location.
But the idea of a slots parlor on Market Street East is not popular with residents: 57 percent are against it, while 39 percent are in favor.
On April 8, Foxwoods announced plans to put its casino inside the former Strawbridge & Clothier department store at the corner of 8th and Market streets. Previously, Foxwoods had been considering a site at the Gallery shopping mall at 11th and Market streets.
The poll of 800 Philadelphia residents was conducted from April 6 to April 11, 2009 by Abt SRBI Public Affairs in association with Rutgers Professor Cliff Zukin.
City officials say the two casinos, both of which have the support of Mayor Michael Nutter, could be operating in about a year. The SugarHouse project needs a go-ahead from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board—a May 6 hearing is scheduled—after having missed a January deadline for having 1,500 slot machines in operation. Foxwoods needs a zoning change, which is the subject of a City Council hearing scheduled for May 7.
In the survey, backing for slots-gambling is broad: No demographic group is opposed, although some are closely divided. The strongest support comes from people with household incomes over $65,000 (66 percent), whites (62 percent) and men (59 percent). The strongest opposition comes from blacks (46 percent), people with college degrees (46 percent), women (45 percent) and people with household incomes below $30,000 (45 percent).
Support for the Delaware River site varies little from one group to another. For more details, see the survey Appendix Table 2. Opposition to the Market Street East site, though widespread, is strongest among blacks and women (62 percent each).
The poll sample was not large enough to provide statistically-significant geographic breakdowns of the results.
The equalityman is not surprised by this poll result. As a lifelong resident of Philadelphia, it has always been very clear to me that not only my beloved Fishtown community supports Sugarhouse but Philadelphia as well. This poll just confirms it. The CasinoFree people have done a fair job with their anti-casino message. They are very aggressive and probably well funded. I continue to urge them in the spirit of transparency to disclose their list of donors so the public can see if they are being funded by any Atlantic City casino interests.— equalityman- I hope people from the Administration are reading this. The Market East location is not the slam dunk they think it is. The people that like that idea the most are them, the Governor, and some major campaign contributors. Stop shoving a casino a block from Chinatown in one direction, and two blocks from Independence Hall in another, down our throats, please.— anodyne
- bull****— nugget
- It's time the CasiNO people shut up and stop trying to speak for all Philadelphians.. because they don't. And I too would be interested to see their list of doners. Somebody is funding these loudmouths.— Chr
- I support the casinos as well. This city needs revenue and new jobs desperately and we have run out of options. The Market East idea scares me just because of traffic congestion but if not there then where? Put another on the river?
- The equalityman went third person on himself, nice— adamsarcia
- The ONLY reason our local gov't is supporting this is because they are so strapped for revenue but I can't see why any resident of the city would want casinos within its limits. There has to be a better way.— Phillies
- Last Thursday there was a Phillies day game and Columbus Blvd was a standstill from IKEA to Girard for 2.5 hours after the game. I-95 was also jammed solid in that area. If the Casino was built behind the Home Depot, this type of traffic would become the norm, and god forbid you combine Casino, rush hour, and or a sporting event. I live in that neighborhood and I never cared about the potential crime, parking, ugliness, etc. The obvious problem from day one was traffic. To choke off the commercial commerce in that neighborhood would be counterproductive at best. Center City seems equally silly for similar reasons. If casinos are a magnet, why put them in neighborhoods that are already thriving?— pagoda
Comment removed.- The survey results are not surprising. Anyone who would oppose these job creating revenue generators in the poor ecconomic times that currently exist can not have the best intrest of Philadelphia in mind.— Unpretentious
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To Chr: So, do you speak for all of Philadelphia? The casino's are a joke and it's amazing that nobody here questions why FACT is funded by Sugarhouse and supposedly speaks for Fishtown. FACT is only interested in getting jobs for themselves and their families. Maggie-O is selling out Fishtown for her own gain.- I was on I-95 at about 4:30 pm last Thursday. I believe that the congestions was a result of several factors (rush hour, the Phillies game, Penn relay's). A Phillies game alone usually doesn't cause such sever traffic problems as those seen last week.— Unpretentious
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David Gambacorta spent a small eternity writing about cops, drug dealers and serial killers. Now he’s writing about power and politics – which sometimes reminds him of the old crime beat. He joined the Daily News in 2005. And yes, he knows you’re not quite sure how to pronounce his last name. E-mail tips to gambacd@phillynews.com
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Jan Ransom, a native New Yorker, joined the Daily News in 2010 after graduating from Howard University. She has since written about the difficulty of filing police complaints, tax deadbeats and life after violent home invasions. She joined the Daily News City Hall Bureau in 2011 and has plunged headfirst into reporting on administration budget battles and City Council shenanigans. E-mail tips to ransomj@phillynews.com
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Sean Collins Walsh is from Bucks County and went to Northwestern University. He joined the Daily News copy desk in 2012 and now covers the Nutter administration. Before that, he interned at papers including The New York Times, The Dallas Morning News and The Seattle Times. E-mail tips to walshSE@phillynews.com
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