Sports Betting Laws Usa
Here you will find an explanation of the specific laws that govern sports betting in the United States. These explanations are not a bunch of legal jargon that is reserved for lawyers and legal professionals but has been put into an accurate, easy to digest terms that allow those of us without a law degree to comprehend the legalities surrounding US-based sports betting versus US friendly sports betting.
Partly the explosive growth of legal sports betting handle on dry land in the United States, said Shelley Wise, P rincess Cruises vice president of integrated marketing. And, as usual, COVID-19 was a factor after Princess suspended operations last March with the rest of the cruise industry. As of May 14, 2018, each individual state now has the authority to dictate sports betting laws within their borders. They can now choose to authorize or prohibit sports betting at their pleasure. Sports Betting Laws In The USA Despite PASPA’s overturn, sports betting laws in the USA are complicated. There's no easy way to talk about the legality of placing sports bets in America (although. Federal sports betting laws dictated the nature of the US sports betting industry for decades. Over the years, however, there have been changes to the applicability and validity of certain rules. Learning more about these laws’ original meanings and new interpretations are important in order to understand the full scope of sports betting laws.
USA Sports Betting Laws
Sports betting laws in the United States are generally directed at either the state or federal level. As a democracy and a republic, the government which rules the United States of America recognizes the rights of individual states. Because of this dual level of government, there are going to be times when sports betting laws and their applications may seem confusing. For instance, today the most applicable laws to sports betting at the federal level are the UIGEA of 2006 (Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act), and The Federal Wire Act of 1961 (Interstate Wire Act).
Covering 45 years, these United States sports betting laws were each created at a uniquely different time in the evolution of the US Internet gambling industry. And in the future, there will no doubt be new Internet sports gambling laws which originate at the state and federal levels in the United States of America.
Currently, a prohibition of US-based companies offering online sports wagering options is in effect as we write this column. But nationwide prohibition has never lasted in the free country that is the USA. (See the alcoholic beverage prohibition from 1920 to 1933.) The legal USA online sports betting section of our website strives to keep you informed of all applicable sports betting laws which affect US citizens. Since this is obviously a constantly growing and changing subject, check back often for late-breaking updates.
UIGEA Law (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act)
The most recent piece of federal legislation in the United States which applies to sports gambling on the Internet is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act or UIGEA. The Security and Accountability For Every Port Act of 2006 (SAFE Port Act) were passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush on October 13 of that year.
Originally created to enhance port security throughout the United States, the SAFE Act included a last-minute rider, Title VIII. This is the UIGEA portion of the law. It keeps US gambling businesses from 'knowingly accepting payments' for bets and wagers over the Internet that are 'unlawful under any federal or state law.' Totally unrelated to the original port safety legislation, the UIGEA has continually been under fire since its inception. We offer a complete and detailed article explaining exactly what the UIGEA gambling bill is and how it relates to online sports betting.
Federal Wire Act Law (Interstate Wire Act)
Officially named the Interstate Wire Act of 1961, the Federal Wire Act tells you its intent in its title. Back in the late 50s and early 60s, organized crime syndicates around the United States used wired communications to run illegal gambling operations. Since this most usually concerned sports betting, the Federal Wire Act became known as an anti-sports betting law.
This is the oldest piece of federal sports wagering legislation in the United States which is still alive and well, and is constantly referred to by both proponents and opponents of the US online gambling industry. This section of our website explains the Interstate Federal Wire Act of 1961 completely, and we will consistently update you as new federal and state level legal opinions are released concerning this law and online sports betting.
PASPA Law (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) - Repealed 2018
PASPA was a federal domestic ban on sports betting in the United States from 1992-2018. PASPA prevented all but 4 states from enacting sports betting laws. Delaware, Nevada, Montana, and Oregon were exempt from PASPA because they had previous sports betting legislation.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of New Jersey (New Jersey vs. NCAA) and repealed the PASPA act. Since PASPA was repealed several states has already enacted domestic sports betting legislation and many more are expected to follow suit in the upcoming years.
With PASPA stricken down, it is likely the Federal Wire Act is next. This would allow states to add online sports betting to their now-legal brick-and-mortar ventures. Nothing has come to fruition as of yet. Read more about PASPA and how it might affect anyone who bets on sports.
DOJ's Formal Opinion On The Federal Wire Act
Since the Federal Wire Act was first passed into law in 1961 there has been confusion surrounding the law's application. Years later lawmakers would try to construct the words mentioned in the Federal Wire Act to outlaw US-based online gambling even though the internet wasn't around when the law was originally drafted. States began asking for clarification on the law's application as technological advancements relevant to gambling entertainment began to flourish.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) was asked to step in and decide if the original Federal Wire Act pertains to state-regulated online gambling operations. The DOJ eventually released a formal opinion that provided clarification as to the scope of the Wire Act's intent and implementation. You can visit our page explaining the DOJ's Legal Opinion the Wire Act for more information.
RAWA Act (Restoration of America's Wire Act)
The RAWA Act is a piece of legislation designed to overturn the existing application of the Federal Wire Act. There have been several attempts to get this law passed but to no avail. The RAWA Act was first introduced in 2014 and if ever enacted the RAWA Act would drastically change American gambling laws.
The Act intends to reverse the Department of Justice's formal opinion on the Federal Wire Act and make all forms of state-based online gambling illegal. Even states that have voted to licensed online gambling entertainment for their region would be forced to stop allowing online betting if the RAWA Act was ever to be enacted. Fortunately for us, many conservatives are also against the Act and after several failed attempts it is highly unlikely we will ever see this Act become a law. Visit our page explaining Rawa for more information.
During the past half-century various laws prohibiting sports betting in the United States have been enacted; among them The Federal Wire Act Law, The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).
The Federal Wire Act (or Interstate Wire Act of 1961 as it was officially called) is the oldest of the three and the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) the newest. It was signed into law by President Bush as recently as October 13, 2006.
But it is the PASPA Law, enacted in 1992, that has mostly been responsible for the absence of sports betting in all but four of the US’s 50 states during the past quarter Century.
Here we look at the effect these laws have had or are having on sports wagering in the United States – and especially at the end result of the recent decision taken by the Supreme Court to scrap the PASPA Law.
Because of its greater significance and the Sportsbook Rush into New Jersey that has resulted from its demise, we look first at the PASPA Law.
The PASPA Law
The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) of 1992 made sports betting illegal in the USA in all but four of its states, these being Nevada, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon.All four were exempted from PASPA because in each case they could show that licensed sports betting had been taking place in their states for a minimum of 10 years and they were thus legally entitled to apply for immunity.
This meant, of course, that for the more than the two decades that have since passed, commercial sports betting in the US, in general, has been pretty much restricted to Nevada and to some limited NFL parley card wagering in Delaware.
For some unknown reason, Sports Fantasy gaming has not fallen foul of any US anti-sports betting laws and has thrived, notably in New Jersey where juggernaut operators with millions of players like DraftKings and FanDuel have paid out billions of Dollars in ‘prize money’.
And all this at a moment in history when the age-old practice of making wagers with bookmakers on horse races was rapidly spreading into many human-based forms of sport in other parts of the world, notably in Great Britain, home of many modern forms of sport, continental Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa.
Partly because its authorities, it has been suggested, were unhappy at missing out on the large sums of tax money being earned by Nevada from sports betting, New Jersey took PASDA to court and after a three-year, see-saw battle, eventually saw the Supreme Court throw out the Act on May 14, 2018, on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
Very quickly after that, New Jersey took advantage of the court’s decision, opened the way to sports betting under its own set of laws and a month later became the first state of the 46 previously not exempts to make sports betting legal – except in the case of high school and College gridiron football and basketball.
Many more US states right now are in the process of joining New Jersey in legalizing sports betting and at the time of writing, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Rhode Island, and New York were reported to be those closest to getting there.
New Jersey’s new gambling laws stipulate that you must be 21 and older to participate in sports betting and with a few exceptions where 18 may be established as the stipulated minimum age, most other states are also expected to set an age limit of 21.
When registering in New Jersey right now (and this could be the norm when sports betting becomes legal in other states), sports bookmakers will ask you to confirm your age and identity using ID and/or Driver’s license info and photos. If they don’t, stay away. They are sure to be dodgy.
If they do, make sure you strictly conform to the age restrictions of the state in question. If you don’t you might find that being underage will legally prevent you from withdrawing your winnings.
Right now the sportsbooks that have been launched in New Jersey allow members to register and to deposit and withdraw funds from their sportsbook accounts from both inside and outside of the state’s borders, but at this stage, it is against the law to actually place bets from outside of the state.
If you do attempt to do so, G-tracking will pick it up and you are likely to be warned in a screen pop-up that what you are attempting to do is illegal and that you will be penalized if you persist in trying to do so.
Federal wire act of 1961
The Federal Wire Act of 1961 was essentially brought into being in an attempt to disrupt the activities of gangsters who were using wire and phone services to conduct illegal sports gambling activities.This was before the advent of the internet and this has created some later-day confusion and two different points of view as to whether or not the Wire Act Law can be applied to online gaming.What it doesn’t do, however, is to restrict legal sportsbooks from operating online inside the states where they are licensed and regulated.Nor does it have any impact on offshore sportsbook operators which fall outside of its jurisdiction.
The UIGEA Law
The latest Federal law in the US which can affect sports gambling on the Internet is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act or UIGEA.
The Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006 (SAFE Port Act) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Bush on October 13 of that year.
Originally created to enhance port security throughout the United States, the SAFE Act included a last-minute rider; Title VIII.
This is the UIGEA law that keeps US gambling businesses from “knowingly accepting payments” for bets and wagers over the Internet that are “unlawful under any federal or state law.”
Sections 5363 and 5366 of UIGEA “criminalize the acceptance of funds” by operators of almost all gambling websites – and the law does not restrict itself to simply US-based businesses, and attempts to regulate non-US businesses as well.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) argued on behalf of Antigua, however, that US gambling legislation could not govern countries which fall outside of US law.
Georgia Sports Betting Law
Antigua sued the United States for $3.4 billion in trade sanctioning because of money lost in its online sports betting and gambling industries due to UIGEA enforcement and the US lost the legal battle.
State Sports Betting Laws
Summing up the US betting law situation as it stands in late 2018, we must underline the fact that states that join Nevada, Delaware, and New Jersey and allow sports betting to flourish will be entitled to come up with their own set of rules that best suit the culture of the population they govern – as long as their local laws conform to the Federal Laws.
It’s very possible then, that when the dust from the Paspa implosion has settled, the sports betting laws governing each individual state could differ greatly and it will, therefore, be crucial that sports-betting gamers get themselves clued-up on the gambling laws that apply in their particular neck of the woods.
Is Sports Betting Legal In The United States
Under the Federal Laws, could and will most likely differ depending on the needs and requirements of their citizens.
State Sports Betting Laws in The United States
Some states have their own laws set aside that tailor to its specific population. Unlike federal laws, these only apply within their borders. State laws vary, with some governments legalizing certain types of sports betting and others choosing not to enforce any kind of legislation at all. Furthermore, states such as New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Nevada, Rhode Island, and New York have all legalized sports betting but have drastically different regulations.
Us Online Sports Betting Laws
If you have any other questions or concerns when attempting to learn more about online sports betting laws, consult a legal professional. These professionals have specific, up-to-date information about your current situation, including new laws and regulations in your state.