Posts Tagged ‘online sports betting’
February 25th, 2010 | Author: Terry Fisher
These days, a lot of people are betting sports online. For most people, this is a way to raise additional income when they win this game of strategy and chance. So they go to sports betting sites and check on online sports betting books in order to bet and try to beat the odds.
Although, many people are already betting with online sportsbooks, there are still a lot of them getting to be anxious about the online sports betting’s legality. These people are asking if online sports betting is legal or not. The truth is that this question is a tough question to answer, as you will need to look at the law in a much deeper sense than just a regular paper that states the things that are legal and those that are not.
In a discussion like this we must first talk about the Interstate Wire Act. It prohibits sports gambling in between states through any wired device such as telephones. This law has some questionable points. One is if the prohibition will only be limited to sports gambling or will it include other types of gambling. Also will it hold up in a court of law? There has already been a case between two online casino gamblers and a credit card company that has been dismissed and thus enforcing this law may be harder than originally thought.
The Second part of this law that is unclear is it was passed during the time when sports betting or gambling between states was only possible through wired devices such as phones. Placing bets through a wired device definitely makes you guilty of violating the Wire Act. The question that is unclear is does this law apply to online gambling or not?
It can be said internet betting or gambling is not covered by this law, although the Justice Department interpreted the law to be applicable to all gambling activities being even those that are done online. This interpretation is just now being challenged to see if it is valid.
After the dismissal of above mentioned case, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Enforcement Act had been proposed by Senator Barney Frank. This act is asking for the government to legitimize internet gambling. It has sited ways on how to regulate internet gambling and how beneficial it be to the country. This means that the United states will receive several millions of dollars of revenue if online gambling is approved as a result of taxes. Currently, this act is still pending for approval from the government.
As a result of new legislation, Antigua and Barbuda have filed a complaint to the World Trade Organizations opposing the United States from preventing them in participating in internet gambling in the US. The WTO sided with Antigua and Barbuda and thus granted them an amount of money to penalize the United States.
As a result of these few arguments and many more not mentioned here, answering the question of whether or not online sports betting is legal or not will still take a lot of study and law interpretation. But for now, online sports betting is not legal in the US, but for a few states. Many new proposals to legalize online sports betting may result is a change soon due to the increased interest in this form of gambling.
Rich Vial is a webmaster for US Player Sportsbook Sites & Online Sports Betting.
