US States Where Online Gambling Is Legal

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US States Where Online Gambling Is Legal – In the United States, gambling is controlled at the state, tribal, and local levels. States act as the major regulators, upholding criminal gambling laws and granting licenses to legitimate gambling establishments, while the federal government mostly supports state-level prosecutions of multistate businesses that operate illegally or offer sports betting.

However, legal online gambling is rapidly becoming a reality in the US. Since a few years ago, the majority of US states have allowed online horse racing betting, but more recently, records indicate that some states have begun to permit other types of internet betting, including casino games, poker, daily fantasy sports, and lotteries.

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FEDERAL GAMBLING LAWS

In order to examine sports betting or gambling, we must address two sets of legislation. First, all states in the country are subject to federal gambling legislation. These are the broad-based laws that apply to all fifty states. Federal laws are generally vague in nature but set the overall tone for gambling.

Some of the more significant federal betting legislation that have been passed include:

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), passed in 2006, aims to stop Americans from placing bets at unlicensed offshore betting sites. The UIGEA forbids financial institutions from handling transactions to or from unlicensed gambling websites but does not penalize online gambling as such.
The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), prohibited all states except Nevada from legalizing traditional sports wagering. Some states were granted exemptions for limited forms of betting, but overall it was PASPA that granted Nevada a virtual monopoly over sports betting. PASPA was famously stricken down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 2018.
The Wire Act: The Interstate Wire Act of 1961 was enacted to target mafia groups that ran sports betting organizations across state lines. The Wire Act prohibits the use of “wire communications” to assist in

placing wagers across state lines.

STATES GAMBLING REGULATIONS

State gambling laws have an impact on state-level issues and apply to everything not previously covered by federal gaming regulations. Given that they fill up the gaps left by federal law, state laws typically have a more particular focus. As long as state gambling and betting laws don’t conflict with federal law, states have a great deal of discretion in how they regulate these activities.

STATES WITH LEGAL ONLINE GAMBLING

Up until 2011, states were not allowed to legalize and control online gambling since the Federal Wire Act was previously thought to extend to all gambling activities.

That changed after lottery officials in Illinois and New York requested clarification from the Department of Justice over their desire to start selling lottery tickets online.

After a memorandum in 2011, the Department of Justice declared that the Wire Act now solely applied to sports betting. Although Illinois and New York’s initial request was for online lotteries, the Justice Department’s view allowed for various types of internet gambling.

Since then, a number of states have seized the chance to legalize, control, and tax internet poker and casino games. The following states allow either online poker, casino games, or both: