Online sports betting in the U.S.A

Can anyone please advise me whether or not online sports betting is legal in the U.S.A?

yes. except in a few states. cant remember what ones

Thankyou williamshills. I just relocated to the U.S.A from Australia. Sports betting is legal there and there seems to be a lot of grey areas here.

.......................................................NO

It's perfectly legal. The US government has no authority whatsoever regarding offshore gaming companies that are chartered and licensed in other jurisdictions. Those companies can take wagers from anyone they want to and US residents can make any wagers with any company they want to. The internet is fair game.

Some chicken garbage companies like Pinnacle and bet365 left the US market on their own. They could start taking bets again today from US residents and there's not a thing the US government could do about it.

Thankyou nick69 - very inciteful post.

That is completely incorrect.  The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act fo 2006. 

Conducting Unlawful Internet Gambling

Unlawful Internet gambling is defined as:

• placing, receiving or transmitting a bet
• by means of the Internet
• but only if that bet is unlawful under any other federal or state law applicable in the place where the bet is initiated, received or otherwise made

Complete and utter garbage.

The US Govt has shown many times in the past that it believes it has jurisdiction over foreign companies who target US citizens.

Once again, complete garbage because it is taken out of context.

The UIGEA targets banks and money processors - not gamblers.

To answer the original question - it is totally legal to MAKE a bet (some states have laws against it, to my knowledge nobody has ever been prosecuted for making a bet).  It is illegal to TAKE a bet.

I have read through the US Gov several times, and can assure you that it is ILLEGAL to make a bet in the USA via online methods (unless of course you can do this via a Vegas book, etc).  ILLEGAL ILLEGAL ILLEGAL.  However....I agree..I don't know of anyone who has been prosecuted for making a bet, and the Gov would come after the establishments before they come after the users.

Keep your garbabe comments to yourself until you fully undertstand the law. 

Thanks vanzack - just trying to get the facts straight before signing up with a sportsbook.

Don't listen to this clown. He doesn't know what he's talking about.

It is NOT "illegal, illegal, illegal, to place a bet online from the U.S.

As Vanzack stated, it is illegal to TAKE a bet.

According to federal law (or rather, the lack of a law against it), online gambling is in fact perfectly legal.  U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway admitted in a 2007 House hearing that just placing wagers online doesn't violate federal law.

Here you go.  I wrote this a few years ago, but for dummies like you - it is worth a refresher (it is in my blog section here at covers)....

Placing a wager on sports is totally legal at the federal level in the US and is not governed by the Wire Act. The act of accepting wagers is what is covered by the wire act, an important distinction.

Let me quote the ruling that has stood since Nov 25, 1981 and has NEVER been challenged (USA vs Robert Baborian 528 F.Supp 324 paragraph 5):

Congress intended the "business of gambling" to mean bookmaking, i.e. the taking and laying off of bets, and not mere betting. The provocative question is whether this is still the proper definition when the bettor wagers substantial sums and displays the sophistication of an expert in his knowledge of odds making. This court concludes that the statute simple does not covers such a situation. This court finds that Congress never intended to include a social bettor within the prohibition of the statute and that Congress did not contemplate prohibiting the activities of mere bettors, even where, as with Mr Baborian, they bet large sums of money with a great deal of sophistication.

The truth of the matter is that the DOJ does interpret the law the way I stated it, and that is evidenced by the fact that there has not been a single prosecution at the Federal level since the case I cited (USA vs Baborian 1981). Not one single bettor has been brought up on federal charges since 1981 unless there was tax evasion, money laundering, or RICO thrown at them. The Wire Act simply applies ONLY to those in the business of gambling, and as defined by the judicial system that means someone who TAKES bets. The following are some articles on the subject - keep in mind when reading them that when they say sportsbetting is illegal under the wire act - the key definition is that of someone "in the business of gambling" which has been defined to exclude the person placing bets.

https://www.playwinningpoker.com/online/poker/legal/
https://www.gambling-law-us.com/Federal-Laws/wire-act.htm
https://www.unc.edu/courses/2006spring/law/357c/001/projects/dsmatthe/federal.html (important pertinent text quoted in italics below - its about the 4th paragraph in the link)

Criticisms of the Wire Act’s Applicability to Online Gambling

• In the Business of Betting or Wagering

Even if the Wire Act is shown to apply to internet gambling it would only apply to gambling operators, since it expressly states that it applies only to those “engaged in the business of betting or wagering.” 18 U.S.C. 1084, U.S. Code Collection, Cornell Law School , at https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sec_18_00001084----000-.html . Obviously, this would exclude individual bettors from any liability under the Act. This point is fairly uncontroversial, and is supported by the language of Congressman Emanuel Celler, then Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, who stated during debate on the Act that “[t]his bill only gets after the bookmaker, the gambler who makes it his business to take bets or to lay off bets. . . It does not go after the causal gambler.” Jeffrey R. Rodefer, Internet Gambling in Nevada : Overview of Federal Law Affecting Assembly Bill 466, 8-13, athttps://web.archive.org/web/20040303190351/http:/ag.state.nv.us/hottopics/int_gamb_nv.pdf (quoting United States v. Baborian, 528 F. Supp. 324, 328 (D.R.I. 1981) (quoting 107 Cong.Rec. 16,534 (1961))).

At the state level, certain states have specific laws that make gambling illegal. Even other states (nevada, california, louisians, and washington) have specifically made online gambling illegal. Any way you slice it, NOBODY HAS EVER BEEN PROSECUTED FOR ONLINE GAMBLING. The closest thing was Jeffrey Trauman of North Dakota - who paid a 500 dollar fine and never went to court in the only known attempt at harassing an online gambler in US history.

https://www.gamblingandthelaw.com/columns/161_Busted_Online_Bet.htm

The politicians love to stand up and say that online gambling is illegal because it helps their causes and they can say whatever they want to further their agendas. The proof is simply that it is totally untrue. Sports bettors are exempt because they are not in the "business of gambling".

You might have heard of the UIGEA that was passed under GWB in 2006. This has nothing to do with the gambler, and everything to do with the credit card processors and banks. This does not criminalize anything for the player. In a nutshell, it makes it harder to get money back and forth, but if you can get money back and forth, you have done nothing illegal as the gambler.

If sports gambling was already illegal under the wire act why would they be trying to pass the proposition to update the wire act? They wouldnt need to. Politicians love to say that sports betting is illegal but then at the same time are trying to pass a bill that makes it illegal. Does that make sense to you? That should be proof alone.

Simple google searches on the subject will all be consistent - if it is a politician talking they will say the wire act makes it illegal and if it is an attorney or independent party they will state the facts - that no federal statute covers online gambling (poker or sportsbetting) if you are placing wagers and not in the business of gambling as defined in 1981.

Now this is all at the FEDERAL LEVEL. Every state is different on their state statutes with regards to gambling, but they are generally considered to be soft laws considering the lack of effort to even enforce them. But the federal law is clear to anyone who does not have an agenda, take bets and you are in trouble, place bets and you are ok.

Now, care to tell me how I dont understand the law?

kma_books is a troll.  he just spews hate in multiple threads.  complete and utter worthless member on this site.

very interesting stuff here

This ^^

There's also a grey area online when you are hosting from an offshore sit or the Khanawake reserve in Quebec (Canada).  You can also bet with cryptocurrency, and then later exchange your winnings for USD, as there is no law that stipulates anything about using cryptocurrency.

Vanzack disagreed with two different opposing answers to the question just so he could show how smart and douchebagish he is.  Impressive.  You even said yourself in an explanation to the other guy that at a federal level its allowable to place the bet, you just like to argue huh?