Sports Betting laws in the united states

Sportsbook customers concerned with the legality of their online wagers should do two things – first, learn the background and legal precedent of current Internet gambling law. Second, if necessary, contact a lawyer or legal professional for addressing more specific concerns you may have about participating in USA college football betting action. The information below does not represent legal advice. Our purpose here is to give people who place college football bets a quick breakdown on current sports betting laws in America. We do not encourage anybody to participate in any type of illegal gambling practice, and we strongly urge bettors to restrict their football betting action to those site which have been verified to hold legitimate licensing and that are subject to regulatory oversight from respected governing jurisdictions, such as the sites recommended in this guide. College football betting can be a very enjoyable form of entertainment for USA residents if handled properly.

The good news for college football bettors in the United States is that the answer to the above question is: "Most likely." Due to differences in the legislative decisions of different states, the question of whether or not wagering on the Internet is "legal" in America cannot be answered. A small number of states have specific anti-Internet wagering laws on the books; others don't address placing real-money bets over the Internet at all and allow the nation's federal laws to address the topic for them.

At least three relevant nationwide legal decisions exist that apply to online wagering nationwide. NCAA football bettors who live in one of the majority of American states that don't outlaw gambling online must then look at federal rules and regulations to determine if their sports bets are legal.

The information below is accurate, current, and presented concisely and in plain language to help clarify the national legal opinion on NCAA football betting in America. Many people hold misconceptions about gambling laws in the USA and it is common for bettors to find incorrect data regarding federal gaming law.

The Federal Wire Act was designed to inhibit organized crime more than to have any noticeable impact on the sports wagers of average Americans. Unfortunately, at the time of the Federal Wire Act, illicit betting activity on the part of organized criminals was significant, necessitating the enactment of this 1961 law. It was actually a successful option that allowed law enforcement to crack down on the illegal betting activity that was taking place, and essentially fulfilled its purpose beautifully.

Since Mob bookies were using telephones to run these illegal gambling rings, the Wire Act made it a crime to allow wagers to be placed via telephone line. Whether or not the law was designed to apply also to modern Internet bets (for instance – do bets placed over a wireless connection count?), the government has been clear on its position that the Wire Act could be used to prosecute people or entities for betting on college football games online. This haw is effective in banning US based online sports betting businesses from emerging.

This antiquated law is the basis of many of the arguments that say online sports wagering is illegal. The Department of Justice, the governing body responsible for enforcing this law, has rarely done so in the past several decades. The Wire Act is by no means a law making NCAA football betting online illegal and was primarily designed to target the operators of illegal gambling businesses, not the participants.

In 1992, a federal law called the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act was passed including language that seems to outlaw wagering on sports in America. Many state governments are lined up to take a stab at having PASPA tossed out of the federal rule books as an incursion into state's rights, especially after the Department of Justice made it clear that states are allowed to decide their own gaming laws.

Already, several states have exclusions from PASPA. Residents or visitors to Nevada and Delaware, where some form of legal sports betting options exist, are allowed to place sports bets to the exclusion of residents of other states. Unfortunately, it is still unclear exactly how the Department of Justice would use PASPA to prosecute a college football bettor, since the law has never been used this way. PASPA is still no threat to gamblers who want to place a wager on an NCAA sporting event.

In 2006, President George W. Bush signed a pile of bills into law in order to protect the country from unknown terrorist threats. Tacked onto this law was the UIGEA, or Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, a pet project of a state congressman who snuck the language into a bill designed to protect the United States from terrorists.

Bettors should have no fear of this law – the language does not actually prohibit US players from betting on college football or any other sport or casino game online. What the UIGEA does is try to regulate gambling from the financial side of things – it was an attempt to regulate financial transactions between gamblers and their online casinos or sportsbooks. Since the UIGEA specifically targets real-money betting websites and transactions, and not customers themselves, there is no danger to NCAA sports gamblers from this bill.

The bottom line message for college football gamblers in the USA is simple – no federal law makes it explicitly illegal to bet on sports, casino games, poker, or any other game of chance or skill. State and local laws may complicate matters for individual sports gamblers, but according to the info above on federal law, players don't have to worry about intervention from federal authorities when they lay wagers on NCAA football or any other sporting events.