Betting and the Law
To say that there is confusion about the legalities of online sports betting would be a massive understatement.
Let’s try and make this easy:
Though there were some early attempts to fit online betting within the frameworks of existing offline betting legislation, the first formal attempt by the U.S. government to control online betting came in 2006 with the passage of the SAFE Port Act. Attached to it was the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (“UIGEA”), which prohibits Americans from using credit cards, electronic funds transfers, or checks to to finance Internet gambling activity.
The act deals only with how Internet betting accounts are funded, and not the actual betting. All the risk lies on the shoulders of Internet-based sportsbooks, as well as companies that specialize in transferring your money to and from sportsbooks. Virtually all sportsbooks are located “offshore”, which means that their business is located in a country where it is legal to operate. This isn’t a bad thing or even a “sketchy” thing, but rather is something that has been necessary due to the U.S. government’s lack of participation in the online betting business.
Nobody has ever been faced with prosecution for the simple act of placing an online sports bet. While Bet Smart Media Inc. takes no official position on your decision to place online sports wagers, it is with extreme likelihood that nothing bad will ever come of your decision to place an online sports wager. If you are thinking about opening up and operating your own online sportsbook, well then you are on your own! But just making a bet, well, you are in pretty good company with the estimated 10.9 million other folks in the U.S. that will place an online sports wager in 2009.
If you want to understand more about the nuances of the regulatory cloud over the online wagering industry, we recommend checking out what is an excellent, comprehensive review of the landscape at VegasClick, which is updated regularly as things change.