Chief legal officers from across the U.S. are setting aside their geographic and political differences to unite against a common cause: offshore sportsbooks and casino gambling sites.
- A bipartisan coalition of 50 attorneys general is urging the U.S. Department of Justice to crack down on illegal offshore sports betting and casino sites, citing threats to consumer protection, state law, and billions in lost tax revenue.
- The AGs are calling for federal cooperation on asset and domain seizures, injunctive relief, and blocking financial transactions to disrupt these unregulated operations.
- Enforcement varies by state, creating a patchwork that allows illegal sites to thrive; past federal appeals have failed, but the AGs are renewing pressure for nationwide action.
A “bipartisan coalition of 50 attorneys general” sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Monday requesting that the federal Department of Justice lend a hand in addressing "the rampant spread of illegal offshore gaming operations across the United States."
“While we as States do all we can to protect our citizens, such unlawful enterprises undermine the rule of law, threaten consumer protection, and deprive our States of significant tax revenues and economic benefits,” the letter says. “We seek the USDOJ’s cooperation in ensuring these companies are brought to justice to the fullest extent available under state and federal law, both criminal and civil, for any potential violations.”
In particular, the AG coalition is asking Bondi and the DOJ to work with them on pursuing injunctive relief and website seizures under federal law, to seize the assets and domain names of illegal offshore gambling operators, and to coordinate with banks and payment processors to block "unlawful transactions" and deny financial infrastructure to offshore books.
A "bipartisan coalition of 50 attorneys general" is calling on the U.S. Department of Justice to crack down on offshore gambling. They want websites blocked, assets seized, and access to banks and payment processors cut off: pic.twitter.com/s32QnrmTA1
— Geoff Zochodne (@GeoffZochodne) August 5, 2025
The coalition (which includes AGs from every state but Kentucky, Montana, Texas, and Wisconsin, plus the AGs of American Samoa, the District of Columbia, the Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands) says recent estimates suggest the volume of illegal online gambling is more than $400 billion annually.
This, they say, translates into more than $4 billion in estimated lost tax revenue for state governments ever year.
“Despite these staggering figures, enforcement has been scarce, only emboldening these illegal operators,” the letter to Bondi says.
Offshore gambling sites compete with legal online sports betting in the U.S.
The call for a federal crackdown on offshore gambling also comes as several states have already tried to take on offshore sportsbooks and casino sites on their own. Bovada has been a common target for those states, and the offshore sportsbook has now restricted access in more than a dozen jurisdictions.
Anybody home?
Yet the campaign against offshore operators isn’t a U.S.-wide effort, leaving a patchwork of enforcement in which unauthorized sites can pick up plenty of business.
There have been calls for federal assistance in the past as well. The American Gaming Association asked for something similar from the DOJ under former president Joe Biden, without luck.
Since then, state-regulated sportsbooks are facing even more competition than just offshore rivals. Sweepstakes casinos and sportsbooks, as well as federally regulated prediction markets, are now in the crosshairs of state regulators and lawmakers, too.
"These offshore entities routinely operate without proper licensure, offer limited or non-existent consumer protections, fail to verify user age, ignore state boundaries, and evade taxation obligations potentially to both the Internal Revenue Service and our States," Monday's letter to Bondi says. "Moreover, these operations undercut state-regulated markets and have been linked to money laundering, human trafficking, and other nefarious conduct."
