CDC report seems to confirm that assessment, said

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- A new poll finds nearly half of Americans approve of legalized sports betting, reasoning that so many people are already doing it.The Fairleigh Dickinson University PublicMind poll released Wednesday finds 48 percent support changing federal law to make sports betting legal throughout the country; 39 percent are opposed.Betting on sports does not have an access issue for anyone in the United States, said Donald Hoover, senior lecturer at the universitys International School of Hospitality and Tourism Management. Most of the sports betting in the U.S. is fairly easy to do, but happens in the shadows and in violation of federal law.The poll comes as New Jersey opens another front in its eight-year war on a federal law restricting sports betting to those states that met a 1991 deadline to legalize it: Nevada, Oregon, Montana and Delaware.New Jersey lawmakers have come up with another potential way around the ban involving a complex repeal of sports betting regulations in the state, followed by a limited reinstitution of restrictions. And the states horse racing industry is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the matter once and for all.The telephone poll using cellphones and landlines to reach 1,019 adults nationwide has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points.Among those in favor, the two biggest reasons given are that many people are already doing it (45 percent) and that legalized sports betting would result in increased revenue for the state (39 percent).Among opponents, top concerns are fostering gambling addiction (55 percent); the potential involvement of organized crime (22 percent) and concerns about the perceived integrity of the games (16 percent).The public is divided on this issue, and it looks like the reasons behind the division stem from the age-old difficulty of reconciling the competing pulls of money and morality, said Krista Jenkins, a professor of political science and the polls director. People are clearly worried about the effects of gambling on individuals and their families, but also aware of the benefits that come from more money for the state from something that people are already doing.The poll also found that although people are more supportive of legalized sports betting, they dont necessarily want more casinos: 68 percent say the U.S. currently has enough casinos, compared to 16 percent who want fewer casinos and 11 percent who want more.Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC Saquon Barkley Giants Jersey . Defenceman Yannick Weber scored the go-ahead goal early in the third period and the Canucks breathed a sigh of relief with a 2-1 win on Saturday night. Julian Love Youth Jersey .Y. -- Canadas Kaillie Humphries and Heather Moyse have another World Cup gold medal after winning the two-women bobsled race on Saturday in Lake Placid, N. http://www.authenticnygiantspro.com/Julian-love-giants-jersey/ . But Bourque, who has missed three games with a lower-body injury, wont be in the lineup when the Habs travel to Buffalo to take on the Sabres on Wednesday. Dexter Lawrence Giants Jersey . If ever they start actually putting pictures beside words in the dictionary, the Blue Jays left-handers mug will appear beside “Consistency. Doug Kotar Jersey . The nimble-footed quarterback got his wish, dashing through the snow and a weary defence all the way into the NCAA record book. NEW YORK -- The upcoming Olympic games are not likely to have a major impact on the spread of Zika virus, although four developing countries could face a substantially higher risk, according to a new government estimate.U.S. researchers tried to calculate whether the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, which is in the midst of a Zika epidemic, will lead to outbreaks that wouldnt have happened otherwise. The danger is that infected travelers might be bitten by mosquitoes after return to their home nations, which would potentially spread Zika to other people and spark an outbreak.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that 19 countries that currently do not have Zika have the right conditions for outbreaks if it is imported by people returning from the Olympics. But in only four of the 19 countries is the issue considered substantial: Yemen, at the southern tip of the Arabian peninsula, and Chad, Djibouti and Eritrea in Africa.CDC researchers made their predictions based on a range of factors, including air travel patterns between Brazil and other countries and the presence of a tropical mosquito that is the main way Zika spreads to people.The four nations at greatest risk from the Olympics generally have no or very few travelers to Zika outbreak countries. Only a dozen to several dozen people are expected to travel to the Rio games from each of these countries, but those small numbers represent a notable jump from regular traffic volume to outbreak countries, said the CDCs Dr. Martin Cetron, one of the authors of the report.That doesnt mean health officials are predicting outbreaks in those four countries, Cetron added.The Olympics are happening at a colder time of year in Rio, when mosquito activity is at a minimum. If people take precauutions against mosquito bites, these four countries could be spared Olympics-related outbreaks, he said.ddddddddddddThe Olympic and Paralympic games are expected to draw an estimated 350,000 to 500,000 international visitors and athletes from 207 countries. But health officials say that travel this year will account for less than 1 percent of international travel to Zika outbreak countries.Last month, the World Health Organization rejected calls by some to cancel the summer Olympics, saying there is a very low risk the Olympics will accelerate the spread of Zika around the world.The new CDC report seems to confirm that assessment, said Justin Lessler, a Johns Hopkins University epidemiologist who focuses on computational approaches to predict the spread of disease.I think the most important result highlighted in this paper is how insignificant the additional risk of global Zika transmission caused by the Olympics is, Lessler said, in an email.Earlier this year, the WHO declared Zika a global emergency after seeing an epidemic spreading through Latin America and the Caribbean.In most cases, Zika infections cause, at worst, mild symptoms that disappear within a week. But the WHO declaration was driven by a link between infections in pregnant women and the development of severe brain-related birth defects in their fetuses.Health officials have advised pregnant women to avoid travel to Zika outbreak countries, including Brazil while the Olympics are taking place.Zika can also be spread through sex, and health officials are advising condom use and other precautions for travelers.---Online:CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr ' ' '