Where Is Gambling Legal In The Us
The US legal betting landscape is closely connected to the history of gambling in the country itself. Games of chance made it to the US colonies when the first European settlers arrived to the New World. The public attitudes toward such activities varied significantly from one community to another, but the country lacked any large-scale restrictions on gambling at the time.
During the late 18th and early 19th century, lotteries were commonly operated as a means of raising additional revenue to fund various educational institutions like schools and universities. Gambling gradually spread throughout the entire country, with cities like New Orleans and San Francisco becoming major hotbeds for such practices. The vigorous growth unexpectedly came to a halt when gambling was uniformly prohibited across the whole of the United States.
Nevada’s Anti-Gambling Bill of 1909
Nearly all US state residents, except those from Washington or Connecticut, can legally access licensed offshore online gambling platforms to play online casino games, enter online poker tournaments, and bet on sports. Illinois: Legal. Legislation was passed in June to allow sports gambling, though in-state collegiate games will be off-limits under the new law. It will make gambling lawful in a variety of.
- The United States maintains several significant federal gambling laws that greatly affect how gambling is regulated and permitted throughout the nation. Each law provides its own in-depth explanation, reasoning, and history behind its creation and implementation.
- In the United States, gambling is restricted almost everywhere, except in Las Vegas and in Atlantic City, New Jersey. If you do not know this and unwittingly participated in a gambling scheme that turned out to be illegal, you can still be charged with a gambling crime and may be slapped with significant penalties that may result in some serious repercussions.
- The state of Massachusetts has a generally liberal approach to gambling law. Massachusetts citizens can place legal wagers in a number of markets – the state is home to tribal and commercial casinos, state and regional lottery sales, dog and horse racing, and plentiful charity bingo and poker games.
Nevada may be considered the gambling mecca of the world but gaming activities have not always enjoyed a legal status in the Silver State. All forms of gambling were first prohibited in 1861 before Nevada was even a state.
Several years later in 1869, Nevada lawmakers passed a new law that legalized gambling and introduced the first licensing fees for such activities. This made Nevada the only state in the country with legal gambling.
Several legislative amendments took place in the decades to follow, many of which concerned the distribution of licensing fees. In 1907, it was decided that all gambling-related fees bar those for slot machines, would be retained by the counties. Meanwhile, the fees from slots were redistributed to the Silver State’s coffers.
Unfortunately, these favorable amendments were short-lived. Two years later, in 1909, the Reno Gazette Journal reported the state’s lawmakers had approved an anti-gambling bill that effectively outlawed all forms of gambling in Nevada.
Despite the efforts of gambling proponents to kill it with various amendments, the bill passed the Assembly with 27 votes “for” and 20 votes “against”. The ban officially came into effect on October 1st, 1910.
Six years later, the local authorities reintroduced legal low-stake gambling activities where the prizes were soft drinks, chewing gums, cigars, and monetary payouts of $2 or less. Illegal gambling for considerably higher stakes became rampant throughout the country.
The Wide-Open Gambling Bill Reintroduces Legal Gaming in Nevada
The following decades were marked by two important historical events that helped reshape the United States’ legal gambling landscape. The year 1929 saw the collapse of the New York Stock Exchange share prices, signaling the beginning of what became known as the Great Depression, a period of high unemployment rates and severe global economic decline.
Then there was the construction of the Hoover Dam (called Boulder Dam at the time) which commenced two years later. This was a massive project which called for significant financing. Legislators renewed their efforts to reintroduce legal gambling in the Silver State as a means of funding the construction.
Young assemblyman Phil Tobin from Humboldt County proposed a new piece of legislation called Assembly Bill 98. This law was actually authored by another lawmaker but he was too afraid to propose it himself because he feared this would be damaging to his political career.
March 19th, 1931 became a historical day as it saw the official signing of Assembly Bill 98 into law. The legislation was approved by Nevada’s Governor Fred Balzar and effectively ushered in a new era of wide-open gambling in the state.
Assembly Bill 98 covered a broad spectrum of gambling games including slot machines, blackjack, stud and draw poker, roulette, faro, monte, and keno. The law outlined new licensing fees for authorized gambling operators, designated the penalties for violators and prohibited “minors from playing and loitering about (casino) games“.
It stated that no individual in the Silver State was “permitted to deal, operate, carry on, conduct, maintain, or expose for play” any of the above-listed games “without having first procured a license” for offering these activities. Section 1 of Assembly Bill 98 also sheds some light on who could apply for a gambling license, stating that “no alien, or any person except a citizen of the United States, shall be issued a license“.
In the year 1945, the Nevada Tax Commission was mandated with the oversight of gambling licenses on a state level. It had the power to audit gaming operators and enforce compliance with the law. The Nevada Gaming Control Board was established in 1955 to assist the Tax Commission with various enforcement and licensing issues.
The local gaming industry’s association with organized crime syndicates strengthened in the following years. As a result, Governor Grant Sawyer pressured the state’s legislature into establishing a new gaming regulatory body, the Nevada Gaming Commission. This led to the introduction of Nevada’s current two-tier regulatory system. The Gaming Control Board acts as a full-time regulator while the Gaming Commission assumes a part-time regulatory role.
Legal Casino Gaming Arrives to Atlantic City
In the decades following the legalization, the gambling scene truly exploded in the Silver State, with many investors like Howard Hughes recognizing the enormous profit potential of this industry. The state of New Jersey decided to follow suit and legalize gambling in response to this immense success.
New Jersey’s residents were initially averse to this idea but in 1976, they eventually voted in favor of legal casino gaming with a majority of 56%. It was decided, however, to restrict betting activities to the territory of Atlantic City only.
The New Jersey Casino Control Commission was established in 1977 under the Casino Control Act, which authorized the provision of roulette, blackjack, craps, baccarat, slots, red dog, sic bo, mini-baccarat, pai gow poker, and “any variations or composites of such games, provided that (they) are found by the division suitable for use after an appropriate test or experimental period“. The Casino Control Commission was mandated with the responsibility of overseeing and licensing authorized gambling operators in Atlantic City.
The Casino Control Act underwent various amendments over the years. In November 2010, New Jersey Senators Raymond Lesniak and James Whelan introduced a new piece of legislation, Senate Bill S12, which deregulated the local gambling industry and transferred the day-to-day supervisory functions from the Control Commission to the state Division of Gaming Enforcement.
Senate Bill S12 was signed into law by then-Governor Chris Christie at the beginning of February 2011. This transferred the responsibility for licensing local casino operators to the Division of Gaming Enforcement along with the task of dealing with customers’ complaints. The regulator is also expected to undertake audits of licensed casino businesses and maintain a list of excluded customers.
The legislation outlines the criteria casino hotels must cover to receive licenses. The building should contain at least 500 sleeping units while the gaming floor should have maximum square footage of 60,000 sq ft.
Exceptions were made for every 100 sleeping units above 500, which increased the allowed footage by 10,000 sq ft up to a ceiling of 200,000 sq ft of gaming floor space. Providing casino gambling services without a valid license is deemed unlawful and subjected to fines ranging from $50,000 to $200,000 depending on the exact circumstances.
Indian Casino Gambling Regulations
Legal casino gambling eventually expanded outside Nevada and Atlantic City, largely thanks to one federal law that enabled Native Americans to operate games of chance within the territory of their reservations. It all started in the 1970s when the Seminole Tribe of Florida decided to build a large-stakes bingo hall on their Broward County reservation.
The trouble was the hall did not comply with Florida’s state law, which stipulated bingo halls could operate no more than two days per week and pay out maximum jackpots of no more than $100. By contrast, the bingo hall of the Seminoles operated six days a week and its maximum prizes went way beyond the legally allowed limit.
The situation escalated to such an extent that the tribe took the matters to the District Court, insisting it had sovereign rights over their reservation. Said rights were granted by the federal government and could not be interfered with by the state government. The District Court ruled in favor of the Seminoles and their bingo hall subsequently reopened in December 1979.
The Seminoles’ victory gave birth to the modern commercial Indian gaming in the United States. These events eventually led to the enactment of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA) of 1988, signed by President Reagan.
IGRA gave Native American tribes the exclusive right to conduct and regulate gambling activities within their reservations as long as said activities were not in violation of federal law. Of course, the tribes could operate gambling businesses only in US states that do not prohibit such activities.
The passage of IGRA led to the creation of the National Indian Gaming Commission, responsible for the regulation of high-stakes gambling in tribal reservations. The body is governed by a chairman appointed by the President of the US along with two other full-time members selected by the Secretary of the Interior. All three are investigated by the Attorney General before they are officially appointed.
Under the provisions of IGRA, the tribes can offer three classes of gaming. Class I constitutes social games with minimal-value prizes. Class II comprises games of chance like bingo while Class III groups together games like blackjack, craps, roulette, slots, chemin de fer, and baccarat.
The Arrival of Regulated Riverboat Casinos
An interesting phenomenon one is unlikely to see outside the US is the so-called riverboat casino. This type of gambling “establishment” was authorized in the early 1990s in several US states that had frontage on the Mississippi River and its tributaries, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Indiana, Missouri, and Illinois.
Illinois was among the first states to legalize riverboat casinos in February 1990, with the passage of the Riverboat Gambling Act. This legislation also led to the creation of the Illinois Gaming Board, responsible for the licensing and regulation of gambling boats. Licenses were initially granted to ten vessels on condition they cruised the river waters while gaming took place on their premises.
This requirement was invalidated after Illinois Governor George Ryan amended the Act in May 1999. This essentially transformed the riverboats into dockside gambling halls. All license applicants were expected to contribute a fee equal to $50,000 to cover the expenses associated with the investigations carried out by the state regulator before license issuance.
Should the costs exceed this amount, the applicant should pay the extra amount. Licensees are also required to “specify the place where (their) riverboats shall operate and dock“. The first ten licenses granted by the regulator expired after three years but were renewable after applicants repaid the necessary fees.
Licensed riverboats could welcome no more than 1,200 patrons at a time. The equipment used to conduct gambling activities should be purchased or leased from suppliers licensed under the Riverboat Gambling Act.
Only individuals of legal age (21 years old) are permitted in areas where gambling activities take place. As for the games allowed on board, these include baccarat, poker, roulette, twenty-one, slots, keno, and faro for Illinois riverboat casinos. Note that each state has passed individual laws that govern these activities, so the exact requirements in Louisiana, for example, may differ from those in Illinois.
Three Laws That Shaped US Gambling Legislation on a Federal Level
1The Interstate Wire Act of 1961
Where Is Sports Gambling Legal In The Us
We previously mentioned that Nevada was the only state with legal gambling until casinos were legalized in Atlantic City. However, this did not prevent organized crime groups based in Las Vegas from facilitating wagers from all over the country with the help of telecommunications, i.e. by wire. This led to the introduction of the Interstate Wire Act which was meant to aid the government’s efforts against racketeering and organized crime. It was signed into law by President John F. Kennedy in September 1961.
This piece of legislation stated that persons engaged in the business of betting or wagering who knowingly use wire communication facilities for the interstate transmission of wagers or wager-related information are committing a criminal offense. Violators faced monetary sanctions and imprisonment.
This outdated law specifically targeted sports wagering over the telephone. At the time, it was impossible for US lawmakers to even imagine betting on sports or casino games via an Internet connection would be possible fifty or so years later.
According to a 2002 ruling of the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, the Wire Act pertains only to sports wagering and does not explicitly prohibit online gambling on games of chance.
2The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992
As if the Wire Act did not make it tough enough for sports bettors already, the US authorities decided to strike again in 1992 by introducing the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA).
Officially known as “An Act to prohibit sports gambling under State law“, this legislation had a big impact because it outlawed wagering on the outcomes of sporting events in all but four states, Nevada, Oregon, Montana, and Delaware. It was officially enforced at the beginning of January 1993.
Under the provisions of PASPA, it was unlawful for any governmental entity or individual to “sponsor, operate, advertise, or promote gambling […] on one or more competitive games in which amateur or professional athletes participate, or are intended to participate, or on one or more performances of such athletes in such games“.
This prohibition continued for over twenty years until eventually the state of New Jersey decided to take matters to the US Supreme Court. New Jersey was keen on regulating sports wagering on a state level but PASPA made this impossible.
Luckily for the Garden State, the Supreme Court overturned PASPA in May 2018 on grounds that it was unconstitutional. This ruling was a crucial moment in US gambling history because it enabled individual states to regulate sports wagering on a state level if they deem fit.
3The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006
The United States is a jurisdiction with a very murky legal landscape when it comes to online gambling. One legislation that had a significant impact on these activities is the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA for short.
The story behind this piece of legislation is actually quite interesting because UIGEA did not go through of its own accord. There were discussions about prohibiting online gambling on several occasions but legislators failed to bring the matters to pass.
UIGEA was attached to another legislation, the SAFE Port Act (Security and Accountability For Every Port Act), which had nothing to do with online gaming. It was approved, along with the SAFE Port Act, in the very last moment before the US Congress was adjourned for the elections on November 7th, 2006. Almost none of the lawmakers had the chance to see the final version of the bill before it was enforced.
One important thing to keep in mind is that UIGEA does not explicitly state online gambling is against the law. Instead, it aims to hinder such activities by making it illegal for payment service companies and banks to process money transfers to and from gambling sites.
The logic was “US citizens cannot gamble on the web if we make it impossible for them to process payments to and from online casinos”. As one direct excerpt from the bill reads, UIGEA “prohibits any person engaged in the business of betting […] from knowingly accepting payments in connection with the participation of another person in unlawful Internet gambling“.
This pertains to payments made with credit cards, electronic funds transfers, checks, drafts, and other similar instruments. Many US citizens falsely presume UIGEA makes it illegal for them to gamble online. It does not. It simply makes the transfer of payments to offshore gambling operators a painful process.
US States with Legal Forms of Online Gambling
After PASPA was overturned by the Supreme Court in May 2018, legal online sports betting became a reality in several US states, with more states expected to follow suit in the near future. Some have already passed laws to allow for such activities, while others are in the process of drafting their sports betting bills.
With that said, certain forms of online gambling may be legal in a given state while others may be prohibited. The operators need authorization from the respective state’s regulators before they can offer their services on the web. Below we list some US states where online gambling is permitted along with the activities residents can partake in.
Nevada
The state of Nevada pioneered legal online gambling and allows for online poker, off-track and sports betting. Off-track wagering on horse races can be conducted via authorized mobile applications and websites only. Legal casino games are still unavailable in the Silver State.
New Jersey
New Jersey presently boasts the biggest market for legal online gambling in the entire country, with a revenue of more than US$1.4 billion since February 2013. The Garden State has a dozen or so regulated online casino sites with slots, table games, video poker, and live dealer options. Online sports betting and poker are listed among the legal forms of virtual gambling as well.
Pennsylvania
Online gamblers in Pennsylvania also have legal access to gambling products. Legal online poker was introduced to the Keystone State in November 2019 when PokerStars received a license through the landbased operator Mount Airy Casino Resort. Regulated sports wagering is available since May 2019. The regulations include support for individuals who are at risk of developing problem gambling.
Michigan
Michigan gave the thumbs-up to online gambling toward the end of 2019 when Governor Gretchen Whitmer signed a new bill into law to allow for legal sports betting, online casino games, and online poker. However, the regulators are still in the process of outlining the rules that govern these activities. Legal online gambling may be delayed until 2021 for residents of the Great Lakes State.
Delaware
Delaware, which was one of the four states initially exempt from PASPA, has also embraced gambling over the Internet. In fact, it became the first state to legalize such activities in 2013. Residents of the Diamond State can legally wager on online slots, blackjack, roulette, poker, and horse racing.
West Virginia
The state of West Virginia currently offers regulated online sports betting via the licensed applications of DraftKings, FanDuel, and BetMGM. These activities are overseen by the West Virginia Commission under the West Virginia Lottery Sports Wagering Act effective as of July 2018.
Detailed Legislation by State
In the United States, both the Federal government and individual state governments are responsible for regulating gaming within their jurisdiction. The Federal government has designated some forms of gambling as prohibited within the US and has created laws that are non-negotiable in the regulation of such prohibited activities. On this subject, the Federal government may outlaw any form of gambling and states must abide by their law as Federal regulation will always trump state laws. It is important to any country’s gambling laws in order to stay within the country’s legal guidelines.
States, however, are permitted to maintain their own regulations and prohibitions on acceptable forms of gambling as dictated by Federal regulations. So long as state laws align and do not challenge or disobey Federal gaming laws they are free to control, oversee, and manage to gamble within their state. Usually, states create and employ gaming control boards or special gaming commissions to supervise gambling activities within their state borders. State laws are subject to their specific state and do not have jurisdiction or power to control laws in other states. Therefore, gambling laws can differ greatly between states.
Active Federal Laws And Regulations In The United States That Affect Online Gambling
The United States maintains several significant federal gambling laws that greatly affect how gambling is regulated and permitted throughout the nation. Each law provides its own in-depth explanation, reasoning, and history behind its creation and implementation. On this page we summarize the laws, however, to gain a comprehensive understanding of the background of each federal law simply follow the highlighted links to resource guide that provides a greater depth of explanation.
Federal Wire Act – To combat prolific organized crime surrounding illegal bookmaking, then President John F. Kennedy enacted this law which effectively outlawed betting businesses from using phones to accept, place, or transmit interstate or foreign wagers on sports. At the time, this federal law greatly minimized domestic mafia bookmaking operations. The law has recently been interpreted by the US Department of Justice as effectively prohibiting U.S. based online sportsbooks from operating within the nation’s borders. Therefore it is a crime to operate an online sportsbook on US soil. The law does not prohibit USA residents from engaging in online sports betting at a legitimately licensed and regulated sportsbook that is legally operating outside of the United States.
DOJ Formal Opinion – In 2011, the DOJ and the Office of Legal Counsel released a memo that explained their formal interpretation of the Federal Wire Act that countered against the previous position the Criminal Division of the DOJ had taken. The memo stated that their prohibition on US-based Internet gaming only applied to online sports wagering. This clarification effectively allowed U.S. states to determine their destiny regarding online gambling as long as it doesn’t entail betting on sports. Therefore online casinos and poker sites are now legally permissible should a state decide to legalize these forms of betting entertainment.
UIGEA – This federal law is specifically aimed at online gaming operators and online gaming payment processors to curb illegal financial crimes, fraud, and money laundering through internet gaming activities. Financial institutions were thus barred from permitting direct transactions to online gaming service providers and given specific regulations on how they may process such transactions. In essence, the law provides regulatory oversight regarding how the online gambling transactions of USA residents are processed. The law does not make online gambling illegal.
PASPA – Once acted as the governing law over the prohibition of brick and mortar sports wagering throughout the US, with the exception of four exempted states. These four states had already implemented some type of active sports wagering or had pending sports legislation in place by a specified deadline and therefore were deemed exempt from the restrictions enacted by PASPA. The exemption was also offered to New Jersey due to their thriving Atlantic City gambling entertainment market, however, the state failed to take advantage of this option and allowed the deadline to pass. However, in 2018 SCOTUS reviewed PASPA and on May 14th ruled it unconstitutional and void. This law is no longer effctive in the land of the free.
RAWA – A preemptive bill yet decided upon intends to rewrite the Federal Wire Act of 1961 to extend prohibitions to include all forms of online gaming. If passed, this law would violently impact the current and future USA online gambling market as it does not include carve-outs for existing state-regulated online gambling platforms such as those initiated in Delaware, New Jersey, and Nevada – effectively making all online gaming in the USA illegal immediately.
State Gambling Laws
Individual states maintain the authority to allow or prohibit any form of gambling within their borders that are not expressly prohibited by US federal gambling laws. Due to the differing climate of states and their individual positions regarding legal forms of gambling entertainment, it is crucial to provide up to date information on what each US state permits and forbids in order to deliver the most accurate information for our readers. Therefore, we have specialized state focused pages to deliver the most current information on gaming laws and permissible gaming entertainment within their borders. Not only that, we provide here a state-specific gambling entertainment bill tracker to keep Americans updated on upcoming legal forms of betting entertainment in their state and inform them of newly enacted or retracted gambling laws.
Who Regulates Gambling in The United States?
At the federal level, there are multiple agencies that have a say in the regulation of U.S.A. gambling, these figures include the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the US Supreme Court, the House of Representatives, Congress, and even the President. All of whom communicate with one another and utilize the US constitution and precedent laws to determine the eligibility and legality of pending gambling legislation and regulations. At the state level, senators and congressmen in government positions lobby, direct, and discuss possible gaming legislation to either generate, permit, and regulate various legal forms of gaming entertainment in their state.
However, state governments often create sanctioned oversight boards such as Gaming Control Boards or Gaming Commissions to authorize, supervise and regulate legalized gambling activities within their state. Certain states in the USA may only have limited forms of legal gaming and therefore consolidate administrative power to existing commissions such as Lottery Commissions that are then tasked to regulate lotteries and limited forms of gambling such as charitable gaming in this case.
Forms of Legal Gambling in The United States
There are a variety of legal forms of gambling within the United States, however, these permitted venues are not uniform across state lines and players interested in engaging in these activities should check with local state laws to ensure lawful participation. As identified by the American Gaming Association the following forms of gaming entertainment are legal in the US: brick and mortar commercial casinos, tribal-run casinos, public and private poker rooms, bingo halls, various charitable gambling venues offering games such as raffles, pull-tabs, paddlewheel, punchboards, and casino nights, table games, on-track and off-track pari-mutuel wagering on horse racing, exotic wagering, bookmaking, daily fantasy sports tournaments, skill-based tournaments such as billiards, darts, and fishing, and lotteries.
Forms of Legal Online Gambling in The United States
Within the U.S.A. there are legal forms of online gambling that citizens may participate in, however again, the permissibility of online wagering is not equal across state borders as individual states hold the authority to allow or prohibit various types of online gambling for their state residents. With this being said, a number of US states have permitted the legalization of online gaming platforms through the use of iGaming services providing online casino, poker and lottery initiatives that are thriving. As of this writing, Delaware, New Jersey, and Nevada all have state-based online poker available, and both Delaware and New Jersey also offer state-regulated online casino gambling as well.
At this moment in time, individual states are not eligible to provide state-regulated sports betting online due to current federal legislation blocking such access. Regardless, nearly all USA residents may participate in legally licensed and regulated offshore online sports betting sites that remain a legal online avenue for USA players.
What Is The Legal U.S. Gambling Age?
Generally, gambling is legally accessible to individuals above the age of eighteen. However, every state has its own laws on the minimum legal age for gambling within their borders and often it can vary by game type. Normally, lottery gambling, charitable gambling, parimutuel wagering and bingo are available to young adults who are at least eighteen. Often times poker and casino gambling impose a requirement for individuals to be at least twenty-one in order to participate. These norms vary by state.
What Happens If I Violate A US Gambling Law?
Nearly all states criminalize gambling in some form and contain various penalties and punishments set for engaging in illegal forms of gambling. Violations of any US gambling laws, whether federal or state, can lead to imprisonment, hefty fines, and/or probation. Each violation case is different, and penalties vastly change based on the state or jurisdiction the violation took place in and circumstance. Imprisonment can vary based on a misdemeanor or felony offense in which case can result in up to a year in county or local jail for misdemeanors and a year or more in prison for felony offenses.
Criminal cases involving organized crime and professional gambling can result in up to a 10-year sentence in federal prison or more. Fines can vary on a state by state basis, generally, misdemeanor fines can range from $100 up to a $1,000 or more. Felony fees are relatively handled the same way and they can reach up to $20,000 or more. Fines can be separate punishments or in addition to jail or prison sentences. Probation sentences often ask offenders to serve 12 or more months either in a gambling addiction treatment facility or refraining from participating in gambling activities alongside with judge recommendations for community service or similar.
What States Have Gambling Legal
Is Illegal Gambling a Problem in the United States?
In the past, illegal gambling rings were run by threatening mobster figures who would often commit violent crimes against individuals and families of persons with unpaid debts. Today, the seedy dark figures of the past are no longer so prevalent but that is not to say that there are no underground gambling activities taking place in the US. In fact, several cases of violent threats and acts occur to this day due to gamblers placing wagers and falling into debt with the wrong type of individuals.
Illegal gaming remains a huge black-market business in the U.S. and every day individuals can place illicit wagers through bookies, backdoor casinos, and illegal online portals while operators, owners, and bookmakers take their cut of this lucrative business. No one is sure how much money is exactly wagered illegally but some estimate that the numbers are close to $88 billion a year. Other than the issue of states being unable to tax this money and legal venues losing money to illegal platforms, the greater issue of possible gambling addiction remains the most threating as addiction can lead to serious problems concerning an individual’s financial welfare, home-life, and possible crimes committed.
Which States Consider Gambling Illegal?
Gambling is wholeheartedly illegal in Utah and Hawaii, as they are well-known for their gaming prohibitions and strict anti-gambling laws. These two states have often reasoned that gambling would destroy their religious values, moral family structures, and harm their communities. Certain states that do not oppose gambling on moral grounds still limit gaming within their borders and only provide minimal gaming entertainment access; a move that often forces interested bettors into illegal gambling activities. One state in particular that engages in this type of limitations is Alaska, however, other states employ similar limitation tactics. These types of restrictions have driven the legal online gambling industry to gain momentum.
How Do I Know If I’m Gambling At An Illegal Destination?
Often a red flag for any gambler is the location of the said gaming site. Look around: is the setting of the business in a rundown location hidden from legal oversight? Do you have to enter through a special backdoor? Is the lighting poor, hygiene of the venue dissatisfactory, and do the patrons and staff give off a suspicious feeling? The one sure fire way to determine the legitimacy of any type of gambling business either offline or online is through their credentials. Legally sanctioned gambling businesses have no problem being transparent regarding their licensing, regulatory oversight and compliance certifications.
All licensing credentials should reflect the name of the agency or gaming commission that issues licensing for any given jurisdiction, and can easily be verified through the relevant regulatory body. If you find yourself in contact with a gambling business of any kind that acts defensive or is elusive when you attempt to question their credentials, you can speculate that their legitimacy is questionable. Illegitimate gambling businesses, which in turn are illegally operating, are usually focused on predatory acts, such as theft and fraud. We strongly caution against sharing any information with any gambling business that you are not sure is operating legally within the industry.
Who Do I Contact About Illegal Gambling Operations?
Once you have come in contact with an illegal gambling operation that attempted to entice you to wager on or participate in illicit activities, contact a lawyer, report the illegal operation at ic3.org, and follow up with filing a report with the FBI, local law enforcement, the American Gaming Associations Illegal Gambling Advisory Board, and/or Internal Revenue Criminal Investigation Department.
Help With Gambling Addiction In The United States