In the last year, there has been a lot of news coverage surrounding online sports betting legality and the various states where it is or is not legal. In the interest of keeping our readers up-to-date on the current legal status of online sports betting in the United States, we have put together this article about the various states’ online gambling laws and whether or not they are enforced.
New York Is Now A Hotbed of Online Gambling Activity
New York State has always had one of the more friendly online gambling environments in the United States. In 2018, this all changed when the state passed the sports wagering legislation that went into effect in April of that year. Prior to that point in time, online sports betting was legal in New York but the stateside residents needed to be 18 years of age or older to place bets. Now, with the exception of online poker, this is all changed. New York State is now a hotbed of online gambling activity thanks mostly to its sports betting laws which went into effect that year. The change is definitely for the better as the state has always had a strong casino and sporting goods industry.
Most of the Eastern Seaboard Is Still Quite Some Way From Enforcement
The story of how and why New York changed their laws regarding online sports betting is actually quite an interesting one. Prior to the 2018 legislative session, the state had a legal gambling environment similar to that of any other state in the country. That all changed with the explosion of the Covid-19 pandemic which prevented the state from enforcing many of their gambling regulations as they had in the past. Now that the situation has somewhat normalized, New York is ready to get back to business as usual and one of the first things they did was pass a law that allows for online sports betting.
Unlike some of the other states mentioned in this article, New York’s bill did not legalize all forms of gambling. In fact, the legislation did not even include casino games or poker as options for online wagers. In order to determine what forms of gambling were online wagering platforms legally able to offer their U.S. customers, the New York State Gaming Commission put a temporary halt to all sports wagering operations as they examined which types of sports they were allowed to deal with as a result of the recently passed legislation. The commission examined whether or not the specific sports involved in a given case — like the New York Jets vs. New York Giants — were considered fixed games by the FBI or contained instances where cheating would be involved or likely to happen. After going through all of this, the New York State Gaming Commission determined that only certain types of sports could be bet on, like college football and horse racing.
Utah Just Like Regular Sports Betting, But With A Few Extra Rules
Utah is another state where sports betting is legal. However, unlike some of the other states where online gambling is allowed, the wagering options in Utah are somewhat limited. According to the state’s gaming regulations, only certain games can be bet on, like Colorado and Kentucky’s athletic associations. In some ways, this is similar to New York’s criteria for legal sports wagering as the two states had to go through the same sort of legal analysis to determine what sorts of sports would be acceptable for online wagering. The main difference is that Utah, like New York, did not completely legalize all forms of gambling, only allowing certain types of bets like single-game and odds on tournaments and series.
Most Southern States Still Ban Gambling
As mentioned above, a good portion of the eastern seaboard is still quite some way from having a fully functioning online gambling industry due to the pandemic. When the economy reopens, it could be that many of these states will change their view on sports wagering as they look for ways to generate more revenue.
On the other hand, some of the southern states have completely embraced online gambling in all its forms. Although the numbers are not in yet, it is estimated that somewhere between 600,000 and 700,000 online gamblers live in Mississippi, mostly playing at online casinos. In the interest of keeping our readers up-to-date on the latest developments in online gambling, we will continue to keep an eye on the various states’ legislation and rules surrounding this topic.