Legality of Sports Betting
When considering online betting on sportsbooks, the first question that comes to mind is whether or not it is legal and if one is breaking the local or state law. After all, most states as well as the federal government have legislation about whether it is legal or not to gamble.
So who and how is sports betting regulated?
Initially, the regulation of all kinds of gambling was left entirely to the discretion of the individual states in the U.S. But the advent of the Internet brought in its wake confusion regarding the jurisdiction of online gambling. For the first time, there was action ensuing in cyber space, the laws of which had never before been a subject of consideration or debate. Most of the existing laws were formed much before the Internet was even conceived of, and thus the application of those laws to online gambling have now become open to broad interpretation.
The US government has been attempting to pass legislation to deal specifically with the regulation of online gambling. However, because there is so much ambiguity regarding the actual governance of such activities in cyberspace, these attempts have not been successful. It is becoming clear that the US will not be able to effectively legislate online gambling.
The most important question therefore is whether it is legal to run a sports betting operation offshore and take action from clients in the United States. Can an American bet on sports legally? The US government believes it is not legal. To avoid breaking US law, most internet sportsbooks are located offshore in foreign countries and also house their computer servers there. There is an explicit law against online betting in only three states – Nevada, California, and Louisiana. In saying that however, no American citizen has ever been arrested for betting on the internet.
