Is Online Betting Legal Or Not?

It is not often surprising why people always wonder whether or not a local or state law is being violated when they are engaging in sports betting on the Internet. Most states and even the federal government are in a state of confusion about the legalization or extent of gambling in sports betting.

Up until recently the decision on whether to regularize gambling in the United States was at the discretion of the independent states. However, jurisdiction was left in doubt because of the spread of online gambling. After all, there is no law that governs the Internet.

Many existing laws were designed to regulate gambling in general ways before the existence of the Internet and applying these laws to online gambling is a debatable matter.

One of the most important questions regarding online gambling is: "Is it lawful to implement a sports betting joint overseas and deal with clients in the United States? The most common argument is it is illegal. However, there has been no legislation that has been passed to thwart such operations. Over the years, attempts to pass such bills have been futile.

The burden of creating and approving gambling laws has been passed on to the legalization of online gambling. In some states, online gambling is legal while in other states, online gambling is completely illegal to the extent of prohibiting even advertising of online casinos as well as participating in sports betting outside of their state of residence. However, these laws are carelessly implemented. The majority of the states focus their attention on gambling violation misbehavior of operators rather than the gamblers themselves.

To prevent violating United States laws, many internet sports books are headquartered overseas in other countries and also have stationed their computer servers there.

For purposes of transparency, the federal government has been trying to create legislation to specifically focus on regulating online gambling. Due to the pending questions regarding authorization of activities on the Internet, any attempt to legislate has remained futile and it's becoming obvious that no effective legislation measures regulating online gambling will ever succeed. Seemingly, it would become the first time in many years that no anti-gambling law will find its way in the halls of Washington.

To date, explicit laws on anti-gambling and online betting exists only in three states - Nevada, California, and Louisiana. Even so, no arrest has been made on any American citizen for involving himself in online betting.