The US is one of the countries that have not legalized online gambling yet throughout its territory. However, the whole situation is complex since the laws of legalized gambling vary from state to state. Let’s take a closer look.
In 2018 PASPA (Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act) was banned by the Supreme Court. The intention of PASPA was to stop the US states from betting on sports. The issue is that legislators realized people would place bets and gamble despite the legislation; in fact, according to AGA (American Gaming Association), 97% of the total amount of sport betting in the US, was spent on illegal betting platforms. And that is a huge amount of money that could have a positive impact on the country’s economy.
Therefore, overturning PASPA marked the beginning of more tolerant and approved contemplation of online gambling. Since that moment, twenty states changed their legislation and legalized sports betting.
Over the last years, many legislators shared different opinions over online gambling; and the US is showing an attitude of approval towards this issue. Currently, online gambling is legal in 24 states, even though some of these states have just been approved, they will be allowed to offer this service within the next months.
However, the situation changes from state to state, since the Department of Justice authorized each state to resolve their own gambling law. Nowadays, more states are looking forward to adopting gambling legislation in 2021.
Considering the aforementioned, it is necessary to highlight that the banning of PASPA affected only sports betting; and that there are many other types of online betting that must be considered when talking about the gambling usa legislation. We are talking about online casinos and other gambling sites that have increased over the past years thanks to the advance of technology and devices like mobiles or tablets.
2021 prepares to be the year of growth of online casinos in the US
There aren’t many states that allow online casinos. Until now, only four states in the usa accepted online casinos as a legal betting platform, they are: New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and West Virginia.
However, reports indicate that the US´ online gambling market will have an impressive growth over the next years (15,40%), and that is something many states are considering. Moreover, besides the report, there are other factors that are encouraging the states´ legislators to over think their gambling laws. Such as all the benefits of allowing online gambling brings, like, being able to reduce the risk of underage users gambling on unsafe platforms. Or making online gambling safe and fair inviting more gamblers to use licensed platforms.
The incomes will continue to grow as more legal online casino sites are available, boosting the economy and enabling the money from online gambling to fair use for the community. All these facts present the states an opportunity to good to refuse it.
That is why, in the years to come a huge change is expected regarding each state´s gambling legislation.
By regulating licensed online gambling, states´governments can charge fees and taxes for providing licenses. These incomes can benefit the community and allow the state to collect funds and make improvements.
How many states legalized gambling so far?
Many states are pushing bills to allow online gambling in all its forms. However, the ones that currently legalized online gambling (including either online casinos, online poker sites, or online betting sports platforms) are: West Virginia, Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, Delaware, Oregon, Rhode Island, Montana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Virginia, Colorado, Tennessee, and Indiana. Most of them allow only sports betting.
The states that are considering legalizing sports betting are the following: California, Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, Kentucky, Missouri, and Kansas.
Clarification
It is legal to place a bet online as long as it is not placed on a site or platform located in the US (of course, we are referring to the ones that haven’t legalized online gambling yet). Gambling on sites that are located outside the United States is legal, if the area where the site is actually located has legalized online gambling, such as the UK, Australia, the Caribbean, or some countries in Latin America.